Data delivery to devices on vehicles using multiple forward links

ABSTRACT

Data content that is to be utilized, as a whole, at a target device on-board a vehicle is apportioned for delivery onto the vehicle via multiple forward links, each of which is included in a different frequency band and/or used a different protocol. A mapping or selection of a specific portion of the data content for a specific forward link may based on a data content type of the specific portion, as well as on other dynamic or static criteria. The target device may operate on the subsets of the data content as it receives each subset. Thus, time critical/foundational portions of the data content may be delivered using a faster forward link, larger elements of the data content may be delivered using a higher-bandwidth forward link, and/or portions of the data content requiring a higher degree of accuracy may be delivered using a more robust forward link, for example.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation application that claimspriority to and the benefit of the filing date of U.S. application Ser.No. 14/225,050, filed Mar. 25, 2014 and entitled “DATA DELIVERY TODEVICES ON VEHICLES USING MULTIPLE FORWARD LINKS,” which claims priorityto and the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional ApplicationNo. 61/901,644 filed on Nov. 8, 2013 and entitled “DATA DELIVERY TODEVICES ON VEHICLES USING MULTIPLE FORWARD LINKS,” the entire contentsof which are hereby incorporated herein. Additionally, the presentapplication is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/225,077entitled “OPTIMIZING USAGE OF MODEMS FOR DATA DELIVERY TO DEVICES ONVEHICLES” and filed on Mar. 25, 2014, and co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/225,017 entitled “HYBRID COMMUNICATIONS FORDEVICES ON VEHICLES” and filed on Mar. 25, 2014, the contents of whichare hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

Still further, the present application is related to co-pending U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/675,200 entitled “VEHICLE DATADISTRIBUTION SYSTEM AND METHOD” and filed on Nov. 13, 2012, co-pendingU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/675,194 entitled “COMMUNICATIONSSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR NODES ASSOCIATED WITH A VEHICLE” and filed on Nov.13, 2012, and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/675,190entitled “GROUND SYSTEM FOR VEHICLE DATA DISTRIBUTION” and filed on Nov.13, 2012. The entire contents of these related applications are herebyincorporated by reference in their entireties.

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE Technical Field

The instant disclosure generally relates to delivering communications toand from devices that are on-board vehicles, and, in particular, to asystem that utilizes one or more forward links and reverse links indifferent frequency bands to deliver communications to and from theon-board devices.

Background

Some existing airlines and other transportation companies provideservices, such as Wi-Fi or other data delivery services, to a devicethat is on-board a vehicle while the vehicle is traveling en route to adestination. The on-board device may be, for example, a device that isfixedly connected to the vehicle (e.g., a device that is included in aLine Replaceable Unit (LRU) on an aircraft), or the on-board device maybe a mobile computing device such as a smart phone, tablet or laptopcomputing device that is temporarily being transported by the vehicle.To establish communications for services to such on-board devices,providers often utilize a wireless communication link such as a directAir-to-Ground (ATG) link or a satellite link over which communicationsor data is delivered to and from the vehicle. The wireless communicationlink is typically a bi-directional communication link over which allforward data (i.e., data delivered to the vehicle) and all reverse data(i.e., data sent from the vehicle) is transmitted and received.

In certain circumstances, the bi-directional communication link on whichan on-board data service depends can be unavailable (e.g., when thevehicle travels to a location that is outside of network coverage), slowor busy (e.g., with a queue of pending upload requests), ormalfunctioning, thus rendering the on-board data services unavailable toor unusable by the devices. Further, because all communications for theset of devices that are on-board a vehicle typically traverse the samebi-directional link, the download or upload behavior of certain datacontent types, data files, etc. can appear inconsistent to users of theservice. For example, messages or communications sent by a device mightappear to have zero latency while the arrival of requested content atthe device appears to be significantly delayed. Moreover, the allocatedspectrum of certain bi-directional communication links is limited, andconstraints, such as those imposed by hardware modems, protocols orregulatory bodies, may further limit the bandwidth and/or throughputthat can be established, thus leading to a less than optimal userexperience.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

In an embodiment, a method of distributively delivering content todevices being transported by vehicles may include obtaining, at a hybridcommunications distributor disposed in a terrestrial location, contentthat is to be delivered to a device. The device may be a mobilecomputing device that is temporarily being transported by a vehicle thatis in-flight. The method may also include selecting at least one of (i)a first forward link included in a first wireless communication linksupported by a first frequency band, or (ii) a second forward linkincluded in a second wireless communication link supported by a secondfrequency band, and causing a first transmission to be sent to thein-flight vehicle using the first forward link. The first transmissionmay include a first portion of the content, for example. Additionally,the method may include causing a second transmission to be sent to thein-flight vehicle using the second forward link, and the secondtransmission may include a second portion of the content.

An embodiment of a system for distributively delivering content todevices that are being transported by vehicles may include a hybridcommunications distributor that is communicatively connected to avehicle via a plurality of forward links while the vehicle is in-flight.Each forward link of the plurality of forward links may use a differentrespective wireless communication protocol, and the hybridcommunications distributor may include one or more processors and one ormore non-transitory, tangible computer-readable storage media storingcomputer-executable instructions. The computer-executable instructions,when executed by the one or more processors, may cause the hybridcommunications distributor to obtain content that is to be presented, asa whole, at a user interface of a device being transported by thein-flight vehicle. The computer-executable instructions, when executedby the one or more processors, may cause the hybrid communicationsdistributor to cause a first transmission to be sent to the in-flightvehicle using a first forward link of the plurality of forward links,where the first forward link is included in a first communication link,and the first transmission includes a first portion of the content thatis to be presented, as a whole, at the user interface of the device. Thecomputer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, may cause the hybrid communications distributor to cause asecond transmission to be sent to the in-flight vehicle using a secondforward link of the plurality of forward links, where the second forwardlink is included in a second communication link, and the secondtransmission includes a second portion of the content that is to bepresented, as a whole, at the user interface of the device.

An embodiment of a method of receiving distributed content at devicesbeing transported by vehicles may include receiving, at a vehicle via afirst forward link of a plurality of forward links configured towirelessly deliver data to the vehicle, a first transmission including afirst portion of information that is to be displayed, as a whole, at auser interface of a device. The device may be a mobile computing devicethat is temporarily being transported by a vehicle, and the firstforward link may be included in a first wireless communication linksupported by a first frequency band. The method may also includecausing, by a processor of a hybrid communications collector fixedlyconnected to the vehicle, the first portion of the information that isto be displayed, as a whole, at the user interface of the device to besent to the device using a wireless network contained within thevehicle. Additionally, the method may include receiving, at the vehiclevia a second forward link of the plurality of forward links, asubsequent transmission including a second portion of the informationthat is to displayed at a user interface of the device; and causing thesecond portion of the information that is to be displayed, as a whole,at the user interface of the device to be sent to the device using thewireless network contained within the vehicle. The first portion of theinformation to be displayed at the user interface of the device may be afirst selected portion, the second portion of the information to bedisplayed at the user interface of the device may be a second selectedportion, the first forward link may be a first selected forward link,and/or the second forward link may be a second selected forward link.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary hybrid communications system fordelivering data to and from devices that are on-board a set of vehicles;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example method of providing hybrid communicationsto and from devices that are on-board a set of vehicles;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example method of providing hybrid communicationsto and from devices that are on-board a set of vehicles;

FIG. 4 depicts an example method to optimize modem or transceiver usageon a vehicle;

FIG. 5 depicts an example method for using a hybrid communicationssystem to effectively use a modem or transceiver on a vehicle;

FIG. 6 includes an example block diagram of a data communication tunnelestablished in a hybrid communications system;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example method for delivering content in adistributed or hybrid manner to devices being transported by vehicles;

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of a method for delivering content in adistributed or hybrid manner to a device that is on-board a vehicle;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an example system contained within avehicle that is configured to receive hybrid communications or data ontothe vehicle and deliver the received information or data to a recipientdevice that is on-board the vehicle; and

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an example computing device that may beutilized in a hybrid communications system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Although the following text sets forth a detailed description ofnumerous different embodiments, it should be understood that the legalscope of the description is defined by the words of the claims set forthat the end of this patent and equivalents. The detailed description isto be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possibleembodiment since describing every possible embodiment would beimpractical. Numerous alternative embodiments could be implemented,using either current technology or technology developed after the filingdate of this patent, which would still fall within the scope of theclaims.

It should also be understood that, unless a term is expressly defined inthis patent using the sentence “As used herein, the term ‘_(——————)’ ishereby defined to mean . . . ” or a similar sentence, there is no intentto limit the meaning of that term, either expressly or by implication,beyond its plain or ordinary meaning, and such term should not beinterpreted to be limited in scope based on any statement made in anysection of this patent (other than the language of the claims). To theextent that any term recited in the claims at the end of this patent isreferred to in this patent in a manner consistent with a single meaning,that is done for sake of clarity only so as to not confuse the reader,and it is not intended that such claim term be limited, by implicationor otherwise, to that single meaning. Finally, unless a claim element isdefined by reciting the word “means” and a function without the recitalof any structure, it is not intended that the scope of any claim elementbe interpreted based on the application of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixthparagraph.

Additionally, any or all of the contents of the present disclosure mayoperate in conjunction with any or all of the contents of the disclosureof co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/675,200 entitled“VEHICLE DATA DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM AND METHOD,” the contents of which arehereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. Further, any or allof the contents of the present disclosure may operate in conjunctionwith any or all of the contents of the disclosure of co-pending U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/675,194 entitled “COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMAND METHOD FOR NODES ASSOCIATED WITH A VEHICLE, the contents of whichare hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety, and any or allof the contents of the present disclosure may operate in conjunctionwith any or all of the contents of the disclosure of co-pending U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/675,190 entitled “GROUND SYSTEM FORVEHICLE DATA DISTRIBUTION,” the contents of which are herebyincorporated by reference in their entirety.

Still further, any or all of the contents of the present disclosure mayoperate in conjunction with any or all of the contents of thedisclosures of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/225,077entitled “OPTIMIZING USAGE OF MODEMS FOR DATA DELIVERY TO DEVICES ONVEHICLES” and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/225,017entitled “HYBRID COMMUNICATIONS FOR DEVICES ON VEHICLES”, the contentsof which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting an example hybrid communicationssystem 100 for communicating information or data to and from devicesthat are being transported by the vehicles 102. The system 100 isconfigured to deliver data or information to a specific device on-boardone of the vehicles 102 (e.g., the device 118 on-board the vehicle 102x) from a data center 105 or from a hybrid communications distributor104 included in the data center 105. In some implementations, the hybridcommunications system 100 is configured to deliver feedback informationfrom the vehicle 102 x to the data center 105 or the hybridcommunications distributor 104, and the data center 105 or the hybridcommunications distributor 104 may use the feedback information toinform subsequent data delivery to the on-board device 118 or to otheron-board devices. In an embodiment, the hybrid communicationsdistributor 104 and the data center 105 are communicatively connected tothe vehicles 102 via one or more vehicle data delivery networks 106, oneor more forward links 108, and one or more reverse links 110.

One or more of the vehicles 102 may be owned and/or operated by aspecific individual. In some cases, one or more of the vehicles 102 maybe owned and/or operated by a company, organization or governmententity. For example, the vehicles 102 may include a fleet of vehiclesthat are used to transport passengers who pay for or otherwise aregranted passage on one of the vehicles of the fleet. The vehicles 102may include one or more vehicles that are used by an organization totransport employees and their guests, in some situations. One or more ofthe vehicles 102 may be used to transport live or inanimate cargo,packages, mail, and/or other types of cargo. It is noted that althoughFIG. 1 depicts the vehicles 102 as being airplanes, the techniques andprinciples described herein equally apply to other types of vehiclessuch as trucks, automobiles, busses, trains, boats, ships, barges,subway cars, helicopters or other types of aircraft, ambulances or otheremergency vehicles, military vehicles, other air-borne, water-borne, orland-borne vehicles, and vehicles that are suitable for space travel.

Each of the vehicles 102 may be communicatively connected to the datacenter 105 via one or more forward wireless communication links 108 andone or more reverse wireless communication links 110. The links 108, 110may be collectively supported by a multiplicity of radio frequency (RF)bands. Typically, a particular frequency band or portion of RF spectrumsupporting the links 108, 110 is allocated (e.g., by a governmental orregulatory body) for a particular type of wireless communications suchas satellite communications, ham-radio communications, terrestrialcellular communications, near-field wireless communications, and thelike. In some allocated frequency bands, the wireless communications maybe transmitted over a forward link and a corresponding reverse linkusing a respective wireless communication protocol that is defined,designated or otherwise indicated by a standards association and/or by agovernment or other regulatory body. A particular frequency band maysupport a point-to-point wireless protocol and/or may support abroadband wireless protocol, for example.

Each frequency band may include one or more channels. The channels maybe formed, defined or allocated by frequency division, time division,code division, some other suitable channel division, or some combinationof divisions. Signals that are carried on a channel may or may not bemultiplexed. Any one or more channels included in a frequency band maysupport (or may be designated to support) a forward link and/or areverse link for wireless communications. Additionally, any one or moreof the channels included in a frequency band may be used to deliversignaling, data payload, or a combination of signaling and data payload.For example, a particular frequency band may support an in-band protocolin which signaling and payload are transmitted over a same channelwithin the band, and/or the particular frequency band may support anout-of-band protocol in which the signaling and payload are respectivelytransmitted over different channels within the band.

A transceiver or modem that is fixedly connected to a vehicle 102 x maybe tuned to a particular frequency band, and thus, along with arespective antenna, may serve as one end of a communication link overwhich data may be received onto and/or sent from the vehicle 102 x.Similarly, a transceiver or modem that is fixedly connected to astructure 112 external to the vehicle 102 x may also be tuned to theparticular frequency band, and thus, along with a respective antenna,may serve as the other end of the communication link over which the datais received onto and/or sent from the vehicle 102 x. The structure 112that supports the non-vehicle end of the communication link may be, forexample, an entirely stationary terrestrial structure such as a buildingor tower on the ground, a relatively stationary terrestrial structuresuch as a barge in an ocean, or a non-terrestrial structure such as asatellite or other structure in space. In FIG. 1, the representations ofthe structures 112 are duplicated to more clearly illustrate the forwardlinks 108 and reverse links 110, however, in practice, each structure112 may be a unitary structure having a single physical transceiver ormodem mounted thereon that services both the respective forward link 108and the respective reverse link 110. For example, a teleport 112 b mayinclude a transceiver that services both the satellite forward link 108b and the satellite reverse link 110 b of a particular frequency bandallocated for satellite communications. In some instances, a singlestructure 112 may include multiple transceivers or modems, each of whichmay be tuned to a different frequency band.

With further regard to the structures 112, in addition to having atransceiver or modem supporting one end of a particular communicationlink 108, 110 to the vehicle 102 x, each structure 112 may includeanother interface via which a communication path 115 to the hybridcommunications distributor 104 at the data center 105 may becommunicatively connected. The interface to the communication path 115may be a wired or a wireless communications interface.

A vehicle 102 x may include one or more fixedly connected modems ortransceivers to support one or more communication links 108, 110 overone or more frequency bands, and the vehicle 102 x may utilize thesemodems or transceivers to receive data onto the vehicle 102 x and/or totransmit data from the vehicle 102 x. For example, a vehicle 102 x mayinclude thereon a transceiver or modem tuned to a frequency band that isallocated for direct communications between vehicles 102 and groundstations, or on which a direct air-to-ground (ATG) communication link issupported (e.g., 849-851 MHz and 894-896 MHz). Such an ATG communicationlink is denoted in FIG. 1 by the forward link 108 a and the reverse link110 a. A vehicle 102 x may additionally or alternatively include thereona transceiver or modem tuned to a frequency band that is allocated forsatellite communications (denoted in FIG. 1 by the forward link 108 band the reverse link 110 b), such as the L band (e.g., 40 to 60 GHz or 1to 2 GHz), the K_(u) band (e.g., 12-18 GHz), the K_(a) band (e.g.,26.5-40 GHz), and/or other spectrum that is allocated for satellitecommunications.

Other examples of communication links that may be established with thevehicle 102 x include terrestrial mobile or cellular communication links(denoted in FIG. 1 by the references 108 c/110 c), e.g., communicationlinks that support TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), GSM (GlobalSystem for Mobile Communications), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access),Wi-MAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), LTE (Long TermEvolution), and/or other terrestrial mobile communications technologies.Yet another example of a type of communication link that may beestablished with the vehicle 102 x is wireless local area network (WLAN)or Wi-Fi™ link supported on a Wi-Fi allocated frequency band (e.g., 2.4and/or 5 GHz), and using a protocol corresponding to an IEEE (Instituteof Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11 standard, as denoted inFIG. 1 by reference 108 c for a Wi-Fi forward link and reference 110 cfor a Wi-Fi reverse link. Still other examples types of wirelesscommunication links that may be established with the vehicle 102 xinclude infrared, microwave, or other optically-based or line-of-sightwireless communication links. It is clear, however, that any suitablewireless communication link including a forward and/or reverse link maysupport communications between the data center 105 or the hybridcommunications distributor 104 and a vehicle 102 x.

In an embodiment, one or more of the transceivers or modems fixedlyconnected to the vehicle 102 x may be operated in a unidirectional mode,while one or more other transceivers or modems fixedly connected to thevehicle 102 x may be operated in a bi-directional mode. For example, atransceiver or modem on the vehicle 102 x that is tuned to a satellitecommunications spectrum may utilized in a receive-only mode, whileanother transceiver or modem on the vehicle 102 x that is tuned to anATG communications spectrum may be utilized in both receive and transmitmodes.

Turning now to the hybrid communications distributor 104 included in thedata center 105 of the system 100, the hybrid communications distributor104 may comprise, in an embodiment, a set of computer executableinstructions that are stored on one or more non-transitory, tangible,computer-readable storage media (e.g., one or more memories or datastorage entities), and that are executable by one or more processors ofthe data center 105. (The data center 105 generally includes one or morecomputing devices having processors, and is described in more detail ina later section of the present disclosure.) The hybrid communicationsdistributor 104 may manage data or information delivery, e.g., over thelinks 108 and 110, to and from a device 118 that is being transported bya vehicle 102 x.

The device 118 may be a device that is fixedly connected to the vehicle102 x (e.g., a computing device that is included in a Line ReplaceableUnit (LRU) on an aircraft), or the device may be a mobile device such asa smart phone, tablet or laptop that is temporarily being transported bythe vehicle, e.g., a mobile computing device belonging to a passengeron-board the vehicle. In an embodiment, the device 118 is a computingdevice including at least one memory and at least one processor, andoptionally, at least one user interface and at least one wirelessnetwork interface. As used herein, the terms “target device,” “recipientdevice,” and “device” are used interchangeably to refer to a device 118that is on-board a vehicle or being transported by the vehicle, and towhich data that is external to the vehicle is to be electronicallydelivered.

The data that is to be delivered to the device 118 may include any typeof data. For example, the data may include user-consumable content datasuch as a text message, a web page, a media file, streaming data, and/ora response to a previous request received at a user interface of thedevice 118. In some cases, the data that is to be delivered to thedevice 118 includes data that is to be presented at a user interface ofthe device 118. In some scenarios, the data that is to be delivered tothe device 118 may be an application, a configuration, an update, orsoftware that the user of the device 118 has requested to be downloaded.

In an embodiment, the hybrid communications distributor 104 may selectone of the forward links 108 that are supported by respective one ormore allocated frequency bands for delivery of data or information tothe device 118, and the hybrid communications distributor 104 mayreceive feedback data or information from the vehicle 102 x over areverse link 110 supported by a different allocated frequency band. Forexample, the hybrid communications distributor 104 may select, from thelinks 108, one particular forward link that is supported by a particularfrequency band for forward data delivery to the device 118, e.g., thesatellite communications forward link 108 b. The hybrid communicationsdistributor 104 may receive feedback information from the vehicle 102 xvia a particular reverse link, from the links 110, that is supported bya frequency band other than the particular frequency band over which theforward data was delivered, e.g., the ATG reverse link 110 a. In someembodiments, the particular reverse link may be selected from the set ofreverse links 110. Accordingly, in this embodiment, a forward link and areverse link of different frequency bands are paired or associated fordata delivery purposes.

At least because forward link and reverse links are supported bydifferent frequency bands, a different messaging protocol and/ordelivery scheme (e.g., broadcast, multicast, unicast) may be used forsending information to the vehicles 102 than is used for receivingfeedback information from the vehicles 102. For instance, a broadbandprotocol may be utilized to deliver data over a selected forward link108 b, and a point-to-point protocol may be utilized to deliver dataover a reverse link 108 a. Additionally or alternatively, the hybridcommunications distributor 104 may cause transmissions to be multicastover a forward link 108 b, and may receive feedback information over areverse link 108 a in a unicast format. Such differing frequency bands,messaging protocols, and/or delivery schemes across the forward links108 and the reverse links 108 and the selection(s) thereof may allow thehybrid communications system 100 to efficiently utilize availablespectrum while, at the same time, adhering to existing modem constraintsand/or regulatory requirements.

In an embodiment, the hybrid communications distributor 104 may selectmore than one forward link from the links 108 (each of which may besupported by a different frequency band) for distributed or hybriddelivery of data or information that is to be received, as a whole, atthe device 118 on-board the vehicle 102 x. For instance, the hybridcommunications distributor 104 may select both the satellitecommunications forward link 108 b and the ATG forward link 108 a todeliver forward data, as a whole, to the device 118, and a first portionof the data may be delivered using the satellite forward link 108 bwhile a second portion of the data may be delivered using the ATGforward link 108 a. In some cases, more than two forward links 108 maybe selected for distributed data delivery to the vehicle 102 x. In thisexample, the hybrid communications distributor 104 may receive feedbackinformation from the vehicle 102 x via a reverse link that is includedin the same frequency band as one of the selected forward links, e.g.,the satellite communications reverse link 110 b or the ATG reverse link110 a. Alternatively, the hybrid communications distributor 104 mayreceive feedback information from the vehicle 102 x via a reverse linkthat is not included in the same frequency band as any of the selectedforward links, e.g., the reverse link 110 c.

Thus, in view of the above, in general the hybrid communicationsdistributor 104 may utilize any suitable combination of selected forwardlinks 108, reverse links 110, messaging protocols, and/or deliveryschemes to transmit data to and receive feedback information from thevehicles 102 in a distributed or hybrid manner. The hybridcommunications distributor 104 and its selection and usage of the one ormore forward link(s) 108 and the reverse link(s) 110, messagingprotocols, and/or delivery schemes for data delivery between the hybridcommunications distributor 104 and the on-board devices 118 is discussedin more detail in later sections of this disclosure.

Turning now to the vehicles 102, some or all of the vehicles 102 (e.g.,the vehicle 102 x) may each include a respective on-board node 120 tomanage data that is received onto the vehicle 102 x and that is intendedfor delivery to a particular on-board device 118. The on-board node 120may also manage data that is generated by the on-board devices 118 andthat is to be transmitted from the vehicle 102 x, in an implementation.Further, within the vehicle 102 x itself, the on-board node 120 maymanage communications of said data to and from the on-board devices 118,e.g., by using one or more communication networks that are containedwithin the vehicle 102 x. In an embodiment, the on-board node 120 mayinclude one or more computing devices that are communicatively connectedto one or more transceivers or modems fixedly connected to the vehicle102 x, and are also communicatively connected to one or more wiredand/or wireless communication networks contained within the vehicle 102x. In an embodiment, the on-board node 120 is included in an on-boarddata distribution system or device such as the data distribution devicedescribed in aforementioned co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/675,200 entitled “VEHICLE DATA DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM AND METHOD.”

In some cases, the on-board node 120 may include a hybrid communicationscollector 122. In an embodiment, the hybrid communications distributor104 may comprise a set of computer executable instructions that arestored on a non-transitory, tangible computer-readable storage media(e.g., a memory) and are executable by one or more processors of theon-board node 120. The hybrid communications collector 122 may receive,via one or more of the forward links 108 and respective modem(s),communications that are provided by the hybrid communicationsdistributor 104 whose contents are intended for delivery to a particularon-board device 118. The hybrid communications collector 122 maydetermine the recipient device 118, and may cause the contents of thereceived communications to be delivered via one or more on-boardnetworks to the recipient device 118. Additionally, the hybridcommunications collector 122 may cause feedback data or information tobe transmitted via one or more reverse links 110 and their respectivemodem(s) for delivery to the hybrid communications distributor 104. Thefeedback data or information may include, for example, data orinformation associated with any one or more communications previouslyreceived over one or more of the forward links 108, data or informationindicative of a state or condition of any one or more of the forwardlinks 108, and/or data or information indicative of a state or conditionof any one or more of the reverse links 110.

Turning now to the vehicle data delivery network 106, in an embodiment,at least a portion of the vehicle data delivery network 106 may bedisposed in a terrestrial location, e.g., a packet network router, anoptical switch, etc. may be located within a climate-controlledstructure on the ground. In an embodiment, at least a portion of thevehicle data delivery network 106 may be disposed in a non-terrestriallocation, e.g., a routing node may be disposed on a satellite oraircraft. The vehicle data delivery network 106 may include a publicnetwork, a private network, or some combination of one or more publicnetworks and one or more private networks. The vehicle data deliverynetwork 106 may include a communications network, a data network, apacket network, or some combination thereof. The vehicle data deliverynetwork 106 may include a hosted network, or may be a peer-to-peer orother type of ad-hoc network. Indeed, the vehicle data delivery network106 may use any known networking technology or combination(s) thereoffor delivering data. For example, the vehicle data delivery network 106may use any known networking technology or combination(s) thereof fordelivering data between the one or more structures 112 and the datacenter 105 or the hybrid communications distributor 104 at the datacenter 105. Generally, the vehicle data delivery network 106 may includea plurality of computing devices that are communicatively connected. Oneor more portions of the vehicle data delivery network 106 may beincluded in the ground based system described in the aforementionedco-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/675,190 entitled “GROUNDSYSTEM FOR VEHICLE DATA DISTRIBUTION,” in an embodiment.

The data center 105 may be communicatively connected to the vehicle datadelivery network 106, and may include one or more computing devices incommunicative connection so that they collectively appear, to othernetworks and/or computing devices, as a single logical entity. In anembodiment, the data center 105 includes the hybrid communicationsdistributor 104. The data center 105 may be located at least partiallyin a terrestrial environment, e.g., in one or more stationary buildingsor structures. For example, one or more portions of the data center 105may be included in a ground distribution network, such as the grounddistribution network described in aforementioned co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/675,190. In an embodiment, at least a portion ofthe data center 105 may be located in a non-terrestrial environment,e.g., on an aircraft, satellite, or space station. It is clear, however,that the data center 105 may be located in any suitable environment,whether stationary, mobile, in a vehicle, terrestrial, ornon-terrestrial. In an embodiment, multiple data centers 105 may beincluded in the hybrid communications system 100 for servicing differenttypes of data, different customers, different geographical areas, or anyother desired or suitable differentiations.

The data center 105, and in particular, the hybrid communicationsdistributor 104 included in the data center 105, may be communicativelyconnected via one or more gateways 130 to one or more other networks132. Generally, a gateway 130 may include one or more computing devicesin communicative connection, and may serve as a boundary between thehybrid communications system 100 and one or more other networks 132. Insome embodiments, at least some of the computing devices included in thegateway 130 may also be included in the data center 105. The one or moreother networks 132 in communicative connection with the gateway 130 mayinclude, for example, the Internet, a PSTN (Public Switched TelephoneNetwork), and/or some other public network. Additionally oralternatively, the one or more other networks 132 may include one ormore private networks. The one or more networks 132 may include anynumber of wired and/or wireless networks. Although FIG. 1 illustratesthe data center 105 being connected to one other network 132 via onegateway 130, the techniques and principles described herein equallyapply to hybrid communications systems 100 having and/or being incommunicative connection with any desired number of other networks 132via any number of gateways 130. In some embodiments of the system 100,the gateway 130 may be omitted.

In an embodiment, the other network 132 may provide data, e.g., via thegateway 130 or via a direct connection, data that is to be delivered toa particular device 118 that is on-board a vehicle 102 x. In an example,the other network 132 is the PSTN communicatively connected to aterrestrial, cellular network to which the device 118 is homed, and thedata to be delivered to the device 118 is a text message or a voice mailforwarded by the home system. In another example, the other network 132is communicatively connected, via a gateway 130, to one or morecomputing devices that host a website which a user of the device 118requests access, and information associated with the website (e.g., theweb page, objects, and links thereon) is to be delivered to the device118 for presentation on a user interface of the device 118 in responseto the user request. In yet another example, the other network 132 iscommunicatively connected to a streaming media provider, and a streamedvideo file is the data is to be delivered to the on-board device 118 forconsumption by the device's user at a user interface. Of course, anytype of data may be provided to the data center 105 by any other network132 (via the gateway 130, if necessary) for delivery to an indicateddevice 118 on-board the vehicle 102 x, e.g., text messages, web pages,media content, streaming data, a response to a previous request receivedat a user interface of the device 118, data that is to be presented at auser interface of the device 118, an application, a configuration, orother software that the user of the device 118 has requested to bedownloaded from the other network 132. Additionally, return data orinformation from the on-board device 118 (e.g., an activation of a usercontrol, a return text message, a request or command, etc.) that isreceived at the hybrid communications distributor 104 may be delivered(via the gateway 130, if necessary) to the other network 132.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example method 200 for providing communications toand from a device being transported by a vehicle. In an embodiment, themethod 200 is performed at least in part by the hybrid communicationssystem 100 of FIG. 1, although some or all of the method 200 may beperformed by a communications system other than the system 100. In anembodiment, at least a portion of the method 200 may be performed by thedata center 105 or by the hybrid communications distributor 104 of thedata center 105. For ease of discussion, the method 200 is describedbelow with simultaneous reference to the system 100 of FIG. 1, however,this is only one of many embodiments and is understood to benon-limiting.

As previously discussed, the recipient device of the data or informationincluded in the communications may be a computing device that is fixedlyconnected to a vehicle (e.g., a device that is included in an LRU on anaircraft), or the device may be a mobile computing device such as asmart phone, tablet or laptop computing device that is temporarily beingtransported by the vehicle. In fact, the device may be any deviceconnected to any on-board communication network that is communicativelyconnected to the on-board node via which data is received onto thevehicle and/or delivered from the vehicle. For ease of discussion,though, and not for limitation purposes, the method 200 is describedbelow in the context of an example scenario in which a device 118 isbeing transported by a particular vehicle 102 x.

At block 202, content that is to be delivered to a particular device 118being transported by a particular vehicle 102 x may be received, e.g.,from the network 132, the vehicle data delivery network 106, the datacenter 105, or from any other suitable source. For example, the datacenter 105 or the hybrid communications distributor 104 of the datacenter 105 may receive the content that is to be delivered to the device118. The received content may include any type of data that may beconsumed by a user of the device 118, such as text messages, web pages,media content, streaming data, a response to a previous request receivedat a user interface of the device 118, and/or data that is to bepresented at a user interface of the device 118. In some cases, thereceived content may be an application, a configuration, other softwarethat the user of the device 118 has requested to be downloaded to thedevice 118, or other data.

In an embodiment, the content is received in conjunction with anindication that the received content is to be specifically delivered toonly the device 118. For example, the received content may be receivedin one or more packets, messages or other communicated format includinga destination address that particularly and singularly indicates oridentifies the particular device 118. In some cases, the specific device118 is the only device being transported by the set of vehicles 102 thatis to receive the content. Upon reception of the content and theindication of the device 118, the hybrid communications distributor 104may determine that the device 118 is currently being transported by(e.g., is on-board) the vehicle 102 x.

At block 205, a transmission (e.g., a message, packet, or other suitablecommunication format) may be caused to be sent, via the vehicle datadelivery network 106 and a forward link 108, to the vehicle 102 x onwhich the device 118 is being transported. For example, the hybridcommunications distributor 104 may cause the forward transmission to besent to the vehicle 102 x. The forward transmission may include at leasta portion of the received content and an indication of the device 118 towhich the content included in the forward transmission is to bedelivered. The forward link 108 may be supported by a first allocatedfrequency band, e.g., the forward link 108 a of an ATG communicationsband, or the forward link 108 b of a satellite communications band. Inan embodiment, the forward link 108 may be included in a frequency bandallocated for broadband communications.

In an embodiment, the forward transmission may be sent as a multicasttransmission, e.g., a transmission that is sent to a plurality ofdestinations (including the vehicle 102 x) in an essentially parallelmanner. The forward transmission may be multicast to multiple vehicles102 even though the content included therein is to be delivered to onlythe device 118 and not to other devices on-board the vehicle 102 x oron-board other vehicles 102. In an embodiment, the hybrid communicationsdistributor 104 may include the content to be delivered to the device118 and an indication or identifier of the device 118 in the forwardtransmission, and the hybrid communications distributor 104 may causethe forward transmission to be multicast over a forward link, e.g., theforward link 108 b of the satellite communications band. As such, themulticast transmission may be received by the particular vehicle 102 xand by one or more other vehicles 102 that have modems tuned to thefrequency band over which the forward transmission is multicast. Eachvehicle 102 that receives the multicast transmission may individuallydetermine, e.g., based on the indication of the device 118 included inthe multicast transmission, whether or not the device 118 to which thecontents carried in the multicast transmission is to be delivered iscurrently on-board. In an embodiment, multiple contents respectively tobe delivered to multiple recipient devices on-board multiple vehiclesmay be multiplexed into a single forward transmission.

At block 208, feedback information or data corresponding to the forwardtransmission that was sent to the vehicle 102 x over the forward linkmay be received. In an embodiment, the feedback information is receivedat the hybrid communications distributor 104 via a reverse linksupported by a different allocated frequency band than the frequencyband supporting the forward link over which the forward transmission wassent. For example, if, at block 205, the forward link over which theforward transmission is sent is the forward link 108 b of the satellitecommunications link, the reverse link at the block 208 over which thefeedback information is received may be the ATG reverse link 110 a orthe Wi-Fi reverse link 110 c. In an embodiment, the feedback informationis included in a unicast transmission sent over the reverse link. Forinstance, the unicast transmission may be transmitted from the vehicle102 x via a selected return link 110. The feedback information may thenbe delivered to the hybrid communications distributor 104, e.g., via thevehicle data delivery network 106 using the unicast transmission formator another format.

The feedback information may include information or data correspondingto the forward transmission (block 202), in an embodiment. For instance,the feedback information may include signaling information correspondingto the forward transmission received at the vehicle 102 x over theforward link, e.g., the feedback information may include reversesignaling such as an acknowledgement of a reception of the forwardtransmission, or an indication that an expected content was not receivedin the forward transmission. Accordingly, the forward link of onefrequency band may serve as a forward data or payload delivery link, andthe reverse link of another frequency band may serve as a signaling linkcorresponding to the forward data or payload delivery link. Such use offorward and reverse links in different frequency bands may allowefficient use of available communication spectrum while adhering tocertain hardware/software constraints or regulatory requirements, insome cases.

For example, multiple forward data that is respectively delivered tovarious devices on board the vehicle 102 x or the vehicles 102 may bemultiplexed into a single forward transmission over a broadband forwardlink (e.g., the forward satellite communications link 108 b). In anembodiment, multiplexed forward transmissions may be multicast to aplurality of vehicles 102. Reverse signaling corresponding to theforward transmissions may be transmitted from the vehicle 102 x (or thevehicles 102) over a lower-bandwidth reverse link (e.g., via the reverseATG link 110 a or the reverse Wi-Fi link 110 c) rather than over thecorresponding higher bandwidth reverse link (e.g., reverse signaling isnot transmitted over the reverse satellite communications link 110 b inthis example). In some cases, forward signaling corresponding to thepayload may be transmitted from the hybrid communications distributor104 over the lower-bandwidth link (e.g., the forward ATG link 108 a orthe forward Wi-Fi link 108 c).

In some embodiments, the feedback information may include informationcorresponding to the availability, bandwidth, and/or quality oftransmission of the forward link over which the forward transmission wasreceived. For example, the on-board data distribution node 120 maydetermine the quality of the forward link over which the forwardtransmission was received based on characteristics of the receivedforward transmission, such as error correction, delay, and/or whetherthe contents were expected or not expected. In some cases, the on-boarddata distribution node 120 may determine the quality of the forward link(and/or the availability or bandwidth of the forward link, for thatmatter) via other data, such as the strength of signals received overthe forward link, information detected by a link monitor, and the like.In a similar manner, the on-board data distribution node 120 maydetermine the availability, bandwidth, and/or quality of transmission ofother forward links 108 and/or of any or all of the reverse links 110.

At block 210, a forward link over which a subsequent transmission is tobe delivered to the vehicle 102 x (e.g., a “subsequent forward link”)may be selected based on the received feedback information. In anembodiment, after the hybrid communications distributor 104 has receivedthe feedback information (block 208), the hybrid communicationsdistributor 104 may select, based on the received feedback information,a subsequent forward link to use for delivery of a subsequenttransmission to the vehicle 102 x. For example, if the feedbackinformation indicates that a quality of transmission or a bandwidth ofone of the forward links has fallen below a threshold, that particularforward link may be removed from the selection pool of forward links, atleast until the hybrid communications distributor 104 receives anindication that the quality or bandwidth of the particular forward linkhas returned to an acceptable level.

In an embodiment, the subsequent forward link may be selectedadditionally or alternatively based on a type of content that isincluded in the subsequent forward transmission. For example, a firstforward transmission may include a text message that is to be deliveredto the device 118, whereas a subsequent forward transmission may includestreaming media content that is to be delivered to another deviceon-board the vehicle 102 x. In this example, the hybrid communicationsdistributor 104 may select an ATG forward link 108 a to deliver the textmessage (e.g., if the ATG forward link 108 a currently has sufficientspare bandwidth to support the relatively small text message), and thehybrid communications distributor 104 may select the satellite forwardlink 108 b to deliver streaming media content, as the satellite forwardlink 108 b may be a broadband connection link having a greater bandwidthor speed than that of the ATG forward link 108 a, which may bettersupport the relatively larger media content. For example, the bandwidthor speed of the satellite forward link 108 b may be two times greaterthan that of the ATG forward link 108 a, three times greater, four timesgreater, five times greater, six times greater, seven times greater, orgreater by a factor larger than seven. In some cases, the hybridcommunications distributor 104 may select a forward link based on alatency that may be tolerated for the particular content of thesubsequent forward transmission. For example, a non-real time mediastream such as a video may be buffered for later or delayed delivery toa recipient device.

At block 212, the subsequent forward transmission is caused to be sentto the vehicle 102 x using the selected forward link. For example, thesubsequent forward transmission may be caused to be sent to the vehicle102 x in a manner such as previously discussed with respect to the block205.

Any or all of the method 200 may be executed while the vehicle 102 x isany state that indicates a dynamic movement of the vehicle 102 x, orthat indicates that the vehicle 102 x is en route or between anorigination and a destination. For example, the vehicle 102 x may be anaircraft, and at least a portion of the method 200 may be executed whilethe vehicle 102 x is in any one of a plurality of flight states, e.g.,in-flight, climbing, descending, weight-on-wheels, or any one of aplurality of possible port states.

With regard to “port states,” generally, as used herein, a “port” may bea designated location from which vehicles may depart and at whichvehicles may arrive. Examples of ports may include airports, shippingports, railroad stations, hospitals, shipping terminals, bus terminals,fueling stations, vehicle maintenance or service areas, military bases,aircraft carriers, and the like. As such, a “port state” of a vehicle,as used herein, generally refers to a vehicle state indicating that thevehicle is in the vicinity of (or proximate to) a vehicle port, e.g.,the vehicle is taking-off, landing, taxiing, parked, docked, in theharbor, in the freight yard, etc. A port state may indicate that thevehicle is stationary or is not stationary. A port state may bedetermined, for example, by determining that the vehicle is within acertain distance of a port, e.g., by using a geo-spatial location of thevehicle (e.g., as determined by a Global Positioning System or GPS),and/or by detecting the presence and/or a signal strength of a beaconsignal that is transmitted by a transceiver of the port. Of course,vehicles that are not aircraft may nonetheless have the ability to be ina port state, e.g., when a boat is within a harbor or docked at a port,when a truck is at a gas station or weigh station, or any time when avehicle is not traveling en route between ports.

In an embodiment, the entirety of the method 200 is executed while thevehicle 102 x is in a port state. In an embodiment, the entirety ofmethod 200 is executed while the vehicle 102 x is in a dynamic movementstate (e.g., in-flight, sailing, or moving along a highway). In anembodiment, the entirety of the method 200 is executed while the vehicle102 x is in a stationary state (e.g., parked at a gate, stopped at arest stop, or halted on a taxi-way).

FIG. 3 illustrates an example method 220 for providing communications toand from a device being transported by a vehicle. In an embodiment, themethod 220 is performed at least in part by the hybrid communicationssystem 100 of FIG. 1, although some or all of the method 220 may beperformed by a communications system other than the system 100. In anembodiment, at least a portion of the method 220 is performed by thehybrid communications collector 122 included in the on-board node 120.In an embodiment, the method 220 may operate in conjunction with a leasta part of the method 200 of FIG. 2. For ease of discussion, the method220 is described below with simultaneous reference to the system 100 ofFIG. 1 and the method 200 of FIG. 2, however, this description is onlyone of many embodiments and is understood to be non-limiting.

As previously discussed, the recipient device of the information or dataincluded in communications received at the vehicle may be any devicethat is communicatively connected with any on-board communicationnetwork that, in turn, is communicatively connected to the on-board nodevia which the communications are received onto the vehicle. For ease ofdiscussion only and not for limitation purposes, the method 220 isdescribed below in the context of an example scenario in which thedevice 118 is a mobile computing device being transported by aparticular vehicle 102 x.

At block 222, a forward transmission including content that is to bedelivered to the mobile device 118 on-board the vehicle 102 x isreceived at the vehicle 102 x. For example, the hybrid communicationscollector 122 of the on-board node 120 may receive a forwardtransmission including content that is to be delivered to the device118. In an embodiment, the content is to be delivered only to the device118, and not to any other device on-board the vehicle 102 x. The contentmay include data that is to be presented at a user interface of thedevice 118, data that is to be stored at or executed by the device 118,or any other data that is to be utilized by the device 118 or by a userof the device 118, such as previously discussed.

The forward transmission may be received (block 222) over one of aplurality of forward links to the vehicle 102 x and its respective modemthat is fixedly connected to the vehicle 102 x. The forward link overwhich the forward transmission is received may be supported by a firstallocated frequency band, e.g., the forward link 108 b of the satellitecommunications band.

In an embodiment, the forward transmission may be received at thevehicle 102 x (block 222) as a multicast transmission. The multicasttransmission may include the content to be delivered to the device 118and an indication or identifier of the target or recipient device 118.In an embodiment, the content and the indication of the target device118 may be multiplexed, in the multicast transmission, with othercontent that is intended to be delivered to the target device 118 or toother target devices on-board any of the vehicles 102. At the particularvehicle 102 x, the hybrid communications collector 122 may recover thecontent and the indication of the content's target device 118 afterde-multiplexing the multicast transmission, or after using some othersuitable technique to extract the desired information from the forwardtransmission.

Based on the indication of the device 118 included in the forwardtransmission, the hybrid communications collector 122 may determinewhether or not the device 118 to which the content is to be delivered iscurrently on-board the vehicle 102 x. If the device to which the contentis to be delivered is determined to be not on-board the vehicle 102 x,no further processing on the received forward transmission may beperformed. If the device to which the content is to be delivered isdetermined to be on-board the vehicle 102 x, e.g., the device 118, themethod 220 may include causing the content of the received transmissionto be sent to the recipient or target device 118 via one or morecommunication networks contained within the vehicle 102 x (block 225).For example, if the device 118 is a mobile computing device connected toa Wi-Fi network on-board the vehicle 102 x, the hybrid communicationscollector 122 may include the content in an IEEE 802.11 compatibletransmission, and may cause the transmission to be delivered over theon-board Wi-Fi network to the device 118. Other examples of on-boarddata delivery other than Wi-Fi, though, are additionally oralternatively possible. Indeed, the method 220 may use any means and/ortechniques of delivering, within the vehicle 102 x, the received contentto an on-board device, such as any of the means and/or techniquesdescribed in the aforementioned co-pending U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/675,200.

At block 228, feedback information may be caused to be transmitted fromthe vehicle 102 x. In an embodiment, the feedback information may betransmitted from the vehicle 102 x using a reverse link that issupported by a different allocated frequency band than the frequencyband supporting the forward link over which the forward transmission wasreceived (block 222). For example, if the forward link (block 222) isthe forward link 108 b of the satellite communications link, the reverselink over which the feedback information is transmitted (block 228) maybe the ATG reverse link 110 a or the Wi-Fi reverse link 110 c. In anembodiment, the feedback information is included in a unicasttransmission sent over the reverse link. For instance, the hybridcommunications collector 122 may cause the unicast transmission may betransmitted from the vehicle 102 x via the selected return link 110.

As previously discussed with respect to FIG. 2, the feedback informationmay include information or data corresponding to the received forwardtransmission (block 222) or to other received forward transmissions,information or data corresponding to the forward link over which theforward transmission (block 222) was delivered to the vehicle 102 x,information or data corresponding to other forward links, and/orinformation or data corresponding to one or more reverse links. Forexample, the feedback information may include reverse signalinginformation corresponding to the forward transmission received at thevehicle 102 x over the forward link (block 222), e.g., the feedbackinformation may include an acknowledgement of a reception of the forwardtransmission, or that an expected content was not received in theforward transmission. As such, in this example, the vehicle 102 x mayutilize the forward link of one frequency band as a forward data orpayload delivery link, and may utilize the reverse link of anotherfrequency band as a signaling link corresponding to the forward data orpayload delivery link.

In an embodiment, the vehicle 102 x may utilize the forward link (e.g.,the forward link of block 222) as a unidirectional communication link.For example, the vehicle 102 x may cause the transceiver or the modemthat is connected to the communications link including the forward linkto operate in a receive-only mode. The vehicle 102 x may utilize thesecond communication link as a reverse link corresponding to theunidirectional forward link (e.g., the reverse link of block 228). Thevehicle 102 x may utilize the second communication link as aunidirectional link (e.g., by placing the transceiver or modem connectedto the second communication link in a transmit-only mode), or thevehicle 102 x may utilize the second communication link as abi-directional link (e.g., by allowing the transceiver or modemconnected to the second communication link to be used in both receiveand transmit modes).

It is noted that the vehicle 102 x may utilize numerous differentconfigurations and numbers of first and second communication links torealize the hybrid communication techniques discussed herein, e.g.,techniques in which communications are delivered to and from deviceson-board a vehicle using forward and reverse links of differentcommunications frequency bands. For example, at least some of thetechniques described herein may be realized by using one or more fullduplex (e.g., bi-directional) communication links as a logical forwardlink, and by using one or more other full duplex communication linkssupported by one or more frequency bands different than the frequencyband(s) of the logical forward link as a corresponding logical reverselink. In another example, at least some of the techniques describedherein may be realized using one or more uni-directional communicationlinks as the logical forward link, and using one or more otheruni-directional communication links supported by one or more frequencybands different than the frequency band(s) of the logical forward linkas a corresponding logical reverse link. In yet another example, one ormore full-duplex communications links may be used as the logical forwardlink, and one or more uni-directional communications links supported byone or more frequency bands different than the frequency band(s) of thelogical forward link are used as a corresponding logical reverse link.In still another example, one or more uni-directional communicationslinks may be used as the logical forward link, and one or morefull-duplex communications links supported by one or more frequencybands different than the frequency band(s) of the logical forward linkare used a corresponding logical reverse link.

At block 230, a subsequent forward transmission may be received at thevehicle 102 x. The subsequent forward transmission may includeadditional content that is to be delivered to the device 118, or thesubsequent forward transmission may include content that is to bedelivered to other devices on-board the vehicle 102 x or on-board othervehicles 102. The subsequent forward transmission may be received overone of a plurality of forward links to the vehicle 102 x, and theforward link over which the subsequent forward transmission is receivedmay have been selected based on the feedback information previouslytransmitted from the vehicle 102 x (block 228), and/or may have beenselected based on a type of the additional content. As such, the forwardlink of block 230 may be the same forward link of block 222, or may be adifferent forward link.

The hybrid communications collector 122 may determine whether or not thedevice to which the content of the subsequent forward transmission is tobe delivered is currently on-board the vehicle 102 x, e.g., in a similarmanner as discussed above with respect to block 225. If the device towhich the content is to be delivered is determined to be not on-boardthe vehicle 102 x, no further processing on the subsequent transmissionmay be performed. If the device to which the content is to be deliveredis on-board the vehicle 102 x, e.g., the device 118, the method 220 mayinclude causing the content of the received subsequent transmission tobe sent to the recipient or target device 118 via one or morecommunication networks contained within the vehicle 102 x (block 232),e.g., in a manner similar to that discussed above with respect to theblock 225.

In an embodiment, after the block 232, the method 220 may includecausing subsequent feedback information to be sent from the vehicle 102x (not shown). The subsequent feedback information may include data orinformation corresponding to the subsequent forward transmission, to theforward link over which the subsequent forward transmission wasdelivered to the vehicle 102 x, to other forward links, and/or to one ormore reverse links. For example, the hybrid communications collector 122may cause the subsequent feedback information to be transmitted from thevehicle 102 x using a selected reverse link for delivery to the hybridcommunications distributor 104 in a manner similar to that discussedwith respect to block 228. The hybrid communications distributor 104 maythen utilize the subsequent feedback information to select a nextforward link, in an embodiment.

Similar to the method 200, any or all portions of the method 220 may beexecuted while the vehicle 102 x is any state that indicates a dynamicmovement of the vehicle 102 x, such as a flight state or a stateindicating that the vehicle 102 x is traveling between ports. Any or allof the method 220 may be executed while the vehicle 102 x is any portstate. Any or all of the method 220 may be executed while the vehicle102 x is in stationary state (e.g., parked at the gate, docked at aport, or halted on a taxi-way).

In an embodiment, one or more of the techniques described above fordelivering communications to a device being transported by a vehicle maybe adapted to efficiently use modems or transceivers at the vehicle,e.g., to minimize the usage of one or more modems/transceivers of thevehicle. FIG. 4 illustrates an example method 240 for effective modem ortransceiver usage on a vehicle. In an embodiment, the method 240 isperformed at least in part by the hybrid communications system 100 ofFIG. 1, although some or all of the method 240 may be performed by acommunications system other than the system 100. In an embodiment, atleast a portion of the method 240 is performed at the vehicle, such asby the on-board node 120 of the vehicle 102 x, or by the hybridcommunications collector 122 included in the on-board node 120. In anembodiment, the method 240 may operate in conjunction with at least apart of one or both methods described in FIGS. 2-3. For ease ofdiscussion, the method 240 is described below with simultaneousreference to FIGS. 1-3, however, this description is only one of manyembodiments and is understood to be non-limiting. Additionally, for easeof discussion only and not for limitation purposes, the method 240 isdescribed in the context of an example scenario in which modem ortransceiver usage is optimized at a particular vehicle 102 x.

In the United States and other jurisdictions, when the vehicle 102 x isin a port state (e.g., is located proximate to or near a port), thevehicle 102 x is required to comply with restrictions issued by thegovernment, the port, and other regulatory authorities as to whichtransceivers or modems on-board the vehicle 102 x are allowed totransmit. For example, transceivers or modems of an aircraft are notallowed to transmit over a satellite frequency band while the aircraftis parked at the gate or is taxiing at an airport. Accordingly, tocomply with regulations, the vehicle 102 x may disable the transmitfunctionality of a modem or transceiver tuned to a satellite frequencyband while the aircraft is parked at the gate or near a port.

However, typically no restrictions are placed on whether or not a modemor transceiver of a vehicle 102 x is allowed to receive while thevehicle 102 x is at or near a port. Accordingly, while the vehicle 102 xis parked at the gate, is taxiing, or is in some other port state, thevehicle 102 x may utilize the forward band of a high-bandwidth frequencyband (such as a satellite communications frequency band or otherfrequency band allocated for broadband communications) to receive dataonto the vehicle 102 x. As such, the vehicle 102 x may receive datausing a high-speed, unidirectional forward link in one frequency band,and may use another communications link in a different frequency band asa corresponding reverse link. For example, while the vehicle 102 x is ina port state, the forward link 108 b of a higher-speed satellitecommunications link may be utilized for high-speed data delivery to thevehicle 102 x, and the lower-speed ATG reverse link 110 a or the Wi-Fireverse link 110 c may be utilized as a reverse link corresponding tothe forward link 108 b. The lower-speed reverse link may be utilized bythe vehicle 102 x as a unidirectional reverse link (e.g., the vehicle102 x may cause the modem or transceiver connected to the lower-speedreverse link to operate in a transmit-only mode), or the lower-speedreverse link may be utilized by the vehicle as a bi-directional link(e.g., the vehicle 102 x may cause the modem or transceiver connected tothe lower-speed reverse link to operate in a transmit and receive mode).In an embodiment, the bandwidth or speed of the high-speed forward linkmay be two times greater than that of the reverse link, three timesgreater, four times greater, five times greater, six times greater,seven times greater, or greater by a factor larger than seven.

Thus, while the vehicle 102 x is in a port state, the use of ahigh-speed, unidirectional forward link over which to load data onto thevehicle 102 x and the corresponding use of a lower-speed reverse linktakes advantage of the varying capabilities of different communicationlinks to shorten the time needed to deliver electronic data onto thevehicle 102 x at a vehicle port, while at the same time fully complyingwith transmit regulations. As such, usage of the different types ofmodems or transceivers on the vehicle 102 x is optimized so that datadelivery times are shortened, and the vehicle 102 x may be more quicklyreadied for a subsequent travel leg.

In view of the above, the method 240 may determine that a vehicle 102 xis in a port state (block 242). In an embodiment, the on-board node 120of the vehicle 102 x or the hybrid communications collector 122 includedin the on-board node 120 may determine that the vehicle 102 x is in oneof a plurality of port states, for example, by receiving informationfrom a GPS receiver, a sensor, or some other computing device on-boardthe vehicle 102 x that is configured to monitor and determine thetransportation state of the vehicle 102 x.

At block 245, a first communication link for delivering data onto thevehicle 102 x may be established, e.g., at a first modem that is fixedlyconnected to the vehicle 102 x and that is tuned to a first frequencyband. In an embodiment, the first communication link is a first wirelesscommunication link. For example, after the vehicle 102 x is determinedto be in a port state (block 242), the on-board node 120 or the hybridcommunications collector 122 may ensure that the first modem is in areceive-only state, and may use the first modem to establish aunidirectional, forward communication link 108, over the first frequencyband, with a port transceiver or modem that is provided at the port andis external to the vehicle 102 x. In an embodiment, the unidirectionalforward link 108 supports a broadband protocol, such as a satellitecommunication protocol or other broadband protocol. Additionally, theport transceiver or modem at the port end of the unidirectional forwardlink 108 may be in communicative connection with the data center 105 orwith the hybrid communications distributor 104 at the data center 105,e.g., via the vehicle data delivery network 106. As such, the wireless,unidirectional forward communication link 108 may support at least aportion of a logical forward link from the data center 105 (or thehybrid communications distributor 104 at the data center 105) to thevehicle 102 x, the on-board node 120, the hybrid communicationscollector 122, a recipient device that is on-board the vehicle, e.g.,the device 118, or a vehicle travel application (VTA) installed on thedevice 118 and particularly configured to support services while thedevice 118 is being transported by the vehicle 102 x. In embodiment, thelogical forward data link may be a forward link of a data tunnel. (Datatunnels are more fully described with respect to FIG. 6.)

At block 248, a second communication link may be established at a secondmodem that is fixedly connected to the vehicle 102 x and is tuned to asecond frequency band different from the first frequency band. In anembodiment, the second communication link may a second wirelesscommunication link. The second communication link may be aunidirectional (transmit-only) reverse link, or the second communicationlink may be a bi-directional link that includes a reverse link. Forexample, after the vehicle 102 x is determined to be in a port state(block 242), the on-board node 120 or the hybrid communicationscollector 122 may use the second modem to establish the secondcommunication link, over the second frequency band, with another porttransceiver or modem that is provided at the port and external to thevehicle 102 x. In an embodiment, the second port transceiver or modem isin communicative connection with the data center 105 or with the hybridcommunications distributor 104 at the data center, e.g., via the vehicledata delivery network 106. As such, the reverse communication link 110may support at least a portion of a logical reverse link from thevehicle 102 x, the on-board node 120, the hybrid communicationscollector 122, the device 118, or the VTA on the device 118 to the datacenter 105 or the hybrid communications distributor 104 at the datacenter 105. In an embodiment, the logical reverse data link may be areverse link of the data tunnel in which the logical forward data tunnellink is included.

At block 250, the method 240 may include using the first communicationlink as a forward link over which data is able to be received onto thevehicle 102 x while the vehicle 102 x is in a port state. The data mayinclude content that is to be delivered to a device that is on-board thevehicle. The device to which the content is to be delivered may be anon-board data storage device that is fixedly connected to the vehicle102 x, in an embodiment. In one scenario, the received data may includeentertainment media content that is to be delivered for storage at anon-board entertainment storage database or data device, and in anotherscenario, the received data may include updated maps or charts that areto be delivered to a navigation system on-board the vehicle 102 x. In anembodiment, the data received onto the vehicle 102 x via theunidirectional forward link may include multiplexed content data that isto be respectively delivered to multiple devices on-board the vehicle102 x. In this embodiment, the on-board node 120 or the hybridcommunications collector 122 of the on-board node 120 may de-multiplexthe received, multiplexed transmission. In an embodiment, the receiveddata may include content that is to be delivered to only the specificmobile computing device. In an embodiment, the received content may havebeen delivered, by the vehicle data delivery system 106 or othernetwork, to a destination port of the vehicle 102 x while the vehicle102 x was en route to the destination port, e.g., by using one or moreof the techniques described in aforementioned co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/675,190 entitled “GROUND SYSTEM FOR VEHICLE DATADISTRIBUTION.”

In some cases, the data may be received onto the vehicle 102 x over theunidirectional communication link in a multicast transmission. Forexample, a service provider may desire to update the on-boardentertainment offerings at all of a fleet of vehicles when the vehiclesarrive at a particular port. The service provider may use a multicasttransmission on a high-bandwidth forward link to deliver the updatedon-board entertainment content to all vehicles of the fleet that areparked at the port. In another example, a critical software update maybe required to be delivered to a particular LRU on-board the vehicle.The software update may be multicast, using a high-speed forward link,to all vehicles that are parked at the port and that include theparticular LRU. In an embodiment, the multicast transmission received atthe vehicle 102 x over the unidirectional communication link may includean indication of the recipient device, and the on-board node 120 or thehybrid communications collector 122 may determine whether or not therecipient device is on-board the vehicle 102 x. If the recipient deviceis not on-board the vehicle 102 x, the multicast transmission may bedropped or otherwise ignored.

When the recipient device is determined to be on-board the vehicle 102x, the method 240 may include causing the data that was received via thefirst, unidirectional communication link to be delivered to therecipient device, e.g., via one or more communication networks containedwithin the vehicle 102 x, in an embodiment. For example, the method 240may utilize any of the on-board data delivery techniques described inaforementioned co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/675,200.

At block 252, the method 250 may include using the second communicationlink as a reverse link, corresponding to the forward link, over whichfeedback or second data is able to be transmitted from the vehicle 102 xwhile the vehicle 102 x is in one of the plurality of port states. Forexample, an acknowledgement of a receipt of the received data may besignaled via the reverse link, or any other suitable reverse signalingcorresponding to the received data (block 250) may be transmitted viathe reverse link (block 252). In an embodiment, the bandwidth or speedof the first communication link may be two times greater than that ofthe second communication link, three times greater, four times greater,five times greater, six times greater, seven times greater, or greaterby a factor larger than seven.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example method 260 for optimizing modem ortransceiver usage on a vehicle. In an embodiment, the method 260 isperformed at least in part by the hybrid communications system 100 ofFIG. 1, although some or all of the method 260 may be performed by acommunications system other than the system 100. In an embodiment, atleast a portion of the method 240 is performed by the data center 105 orby the hybrid communications distributor 104 included in the data center105. In an embodiment, the method 260 may operate in conjunction with aleast a part of one or more of the methods described in FIGS. 2-4. Forease of discussion, the method 260 is described below with simultaneousreference to FIGS. 1-4, however, this description is only one of manyembodiments and is understood to be non-limiting. Additionally, for easeof discussion only and not for limitation purposes, the method 260 isdescribed below in the context of an example scenario in which modem ortransceiver usage is optimized at a particular vehicle 102 x of aplurality of vehicles 102.

At block 262, a determination that a vehicle 102 x is in one of aplurality of port states may be made. For example, the data center 105or the hybrid communications distributor 104 at the data center 105 maydetermine that the vehicle is in a port state by receiving an indicationof the vehicle's state from another computing device, sensor, or datasource.

At block 265, a data communication tunnel may be established between thedata center 105 and the vehicle 102 x. For example, a data communicationtunnel may include a first end that is not on-board the vehicle 102 x,which may be the data center 105 or the hybrid communicationsdistributor 104 at the data center. The data communication tunnel mayinclude a second end that is on-board the vehicle 102 x. The end of thedata communication tunnel on-board the vehicle 102 x may be, forexample, the on-board node 120 of the vehicle 102 x, the hybridcommunications collector 122, the device 118, or the VTA executing onthe device 118.

A block diagram of an example data communication tunnel 600 that may beestablished by the method 260 or that may otherwise be established inthe hybrid communications system 100 or in another hybrid communicationssystem is provided in FIG. 6. As used herein, the terms “datacommunication tunnel,” “data tunnel,” and “tunnel” are usedinterchangeably to refer to an encapsulated transmission path or logicalconnection, e.g., between a node or data center 602 that is external tothe vehicle 102 x, and a node 604 that is on-board the vehicle 102 x. Insome cases, the data communication tunnel 600 may be an encapsulatedtransmission path or logical connection having a first endpoint that isexternal to the vehicle 102 x. For example, the first endpoint of thedata tunnel may be the data center 602 or may be a hybrid communicationsdistributor 606 at the data center 602. In an embodiment, the hybridcommunications distributor 606 may be the hybrid communicationsdistributor 104 of FIG. 1.

The data communication tunnel 600 may have a second endpoint that isdisposed on-board the vehicle 102 x. For example, the second endpoint ofthe data tunnel 600 may be the on-board node 604, or may be anapplication 608 executing on the on-board node 604, such as the hybridcommunications collector 122 executing on the on-board node 120. In somecases, the second endpoint of the data tunnel 600 may be the recipientdevice 118, or may be the VTA or some other application executing on therecipient device 118.

The data tunnel 600 may be realized, in an embodiment, by utilizing atunneling protocol between the two endpoints. The packets ortransmissions of the tunneling protocol may be encapsulated withinpackets or transmissions of other procotol(s) used by communicationlink(s) supporting the tunnel 600. As an example, referringsimultaneously to FIGS. 1 and 6, an example data tunnel between thehybrid communications distributor 104 and the device 118 on-board thevehicle 102 x may include a data tunnel forward link 610 that uses adata tunnel protocol. Forward packets of the data tunnel protocol may beencapsulated by each of the respective protocols used by the variousforward links supporting the data tunnel forward link 610, e.g.,respective protocols used by the vehicle data delivery network 106, aselected forward link 108, and the Wi-Fi forward link within the cabinof the vehicle 102 x. Similarly, a data tunnel reverse link 612 betweenthe hybrid communications distributor 104 and the device 118 may besupported by a Wi-Fi reverse link within the cabin of the vehicle 102 x,a selected reverse link 110, and the vehicle data delivery network 106,e.g., each of the respective protocols utilized on these varioussupporting reverse links encapsulates the data tunnel protocol packetsin the reverse direction.

In embodiments where the data tunnel 600 is included in the hybridcommunications system 100, the data tunnel forward link 610 may besupported by one or more communication links that differ in protocoland/or frequency band from the one or more communication linkssupporting the data tunnel reverse link 612. Further, the data tunnelforward link 610 and the data tunnel reverse link 612 may differ intheir respective supporting message delivery schemes (e.g., multicast orunicast), and/or in the number of supporting communication links used(e.g., multiple supporting communication links in the data tunnelforward link 610 and one supporting communication link in the datatunnel reverse link 612). Nonetheless, the data tunnel 600 between thedata center 602 and on-board node 604 may be, in some cases, logicallyrepresented (e.g., in a software application) as having one logical datatunnel forward link 610 or forward stream of data, and one logical datatunnel reverse link 612 or reverse stream of data, in an embodiment.

Forward data 614, or data sent on the data tunnel forward link 610 tothe on-board node 604, may include, for example: (i) content 618 fordelivery to one or more on-board recipient devices that are incommunicative connection to the on-board node 604, where the content 618may include any type of data, such as text messages, web pages, mediacontent, streaming data, a response to a previous request received at auser interface of an on-board device, data that is to be presented at auser interface of an on-board device, an application, a configuration,other software that the user of an on-board device has requested to bedownloaded, etc.; (ii) signaling information 616 corresponding to thecontent 618 and to the delivery of the content 618 over the data tunnel600; (iii) device information 620 a identifying the on-board recipientdevice or devices to which the content 618 is to delivered; and/or (iv)other forward signaling information 616 corresponding to usage of thedata tunnel 600 itself (e.g., availability, quality of transmission,bandwidth management, etc.).

Reverse data 622, or data sent on the data tunnel reverse link 612 tothe data center 602, may include, for example: (i) feedback information624 corresponding to the delivered content 618 and/or corresponding tothe usage of data tunnel 600 (e.g., availability, quality oftransmission, bandwidth management, etc.); (ii) content requests 626from on-board devices, where the content requests 626 are generated by auser of an on-board device or by the on-board device itself; and/or(iii) device information 620 b identifying the on-board devicesgenerating the content requests 626.

Although several specific examples of forward data 614 and reverse data622 are discussed above, it is understood that the data tunnel forwardlink 610 and the data tunnel reverse link 612 may carry any desired typeof data between the endpoints of the tunnel 600. Additionally, it isclear that the forward data 614 may be split, aggregated, multiplexed,or combined into any number of data structures, packets, or messages,e.g., for the sake of efficiency and timeliness. Similarly, the reversedata 622 may additionally or alternatively be split, aggregated,multiplexed, or combined into any number of data structures, packets, ormessages. Furthermore, in an embodiment, multiple data tunnels may beestablished between the two endpoints. For example, the data center 602or the hybrid communications distributor 606 included therein mayestablish multiple data communication tunnels with the node 604 on theparticular vehicle 102 x, and/or may establish multiple datacommunication tunnels with multiple nodes on multiple vehicles 102.

Returning now to the block 265 of the method 260, the established datacommunication tunnel may include a data tunnel forward link and a datatunnel reverse link, e.g., the forward link 610 and the reverse link 612described with respect to FIG. 6. The data tunnel forward link 610 maybe supported by a forward communication link 108 connected to firstmodem that is fixedly connected to the vehicle 102 x and operated in areceive-only mode. As such, the data tunnel forward link 610 may besupported by a unidirectional forward communication link 108. The datatunnel reverse link 612 may be supported by a reverse communication link110 connected to a second modem that is fixedly connected to the vehicle102 x. The second modem may be operated in a transmit-only mode, or maybe operated in both transmit and receive modes. The first and the secondmodems may be tuned to different frequency bands so that the forwardlink 108 (supporting the data tunnel forward link 610) and the reverselink 110 (supporting the data tunnel reverse link 612) are themselvessupported by different frequency bands and protocols.

When the vehicle is determined to be in a port state (block 262),forward data may be caused to be delivered from the endpoint of the datatunnel that is external to the vehicle 102 x to the endpoint of the datatunnel that is on-board the vehicle 102 x (block 268). For example,forward data may be caused to be delivered from the data center 105 orthe hybrid communications distributor 104 to one of the on-board node120, the hybrid communications collector 122, the target on-boarddevice, or an application executing on the target on-board device. Thedelivered forward data may include, for example, any or all types offorward data 614.

When the vehicle is determined to be in a port state (block 262),reverse feedback information or data may be caused to be delivered fromthe endpoint of the data tunnel that is on-board the vehicle 102 x tothe endpoint of the data tunnel that is external to the vehicle 102 x(block 268). For example, reverse data may be caused to be deliveredfrom one of the on-board node 120, the hybrid communications collector122, the target on-board device 118, or an application executing on thetarget on-board device (e.g., the VTA) to the data center 105 or to thehybrid communications distributor 104. The delivered reverse data mayinclude, for example, any or all types of reverse data 622.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example method 280 for delivering content, in adistributed or hybrid manner, to a device that is on-board a vehicle. Inan embodiment, the method 280 is performed at least in part by thehybrid communications system 100 of FIG. 1, although some or all of themethod 280 may be performed by a communications system other than thesystem 100. In an embodiment, at least a portion of the method 280 isperformed by the data center 105 or by the hybrid communicationsdistributor 104 included in the data center 105. In an embodiment, themethod 280 may operate in conjunction with a least a part of one or moreof the methods described in FIGS. 2-5, and/or with the data tunnel 600of FIG. 6. For ease of discussion, the method 280 is described belowwith simultaneous reference to FIGS. 1-6, however, this description isonly one of many embodiments and is understood to be non-limiting.Additionally, for ease of discussion only and not for limitationpurposes, the method 280 is described below in the context of an examplescenario in which data is to be delivered to a device 118 that ison-board a particular vehicle 102 x of a plurality of vehicles 102.

At block 282, content that is to be delivered to a device 118 beingtransported by a vehicle 102 x may be obtained. For example, contentthat is to be delivered to the device 118 may be obtained by the datacenter 105 or by the hybrid communications distributor 104 of the datacenter 105, e.g., by receiving the content from an external network 132,the vehicle data delivery network 106, or other suitable source, or fromobtaining the content from the data center 105 itself or from some otherdata storage entity. The device 118 to which the content is to bedelivered may be any device previously discussed with respect to FIGS.1-6, e.g., a mobile computing device being temporarily transported bythe vehicle 102 x, or a computing device that is fixedly connected tothe vehicle 102 x. Similarly, the content to be delivered to the device118 may be any type of content previously discussed with respect toFIGS. 1-6, e.g., a web page, streaming data, a text message, a responseto a previous request, etc. With respect to the method 280, though, thecontent to be delivered to the device 118 is to be delivered to thedevice 118 as a whole, e.g., an entire web page, a streaming video ormovie, etc. In embodiment, the obtained content is to be delivered tothe device 118 as a whole to be presented, as a whole, at a userinterface of the device 118.

At block 285, a first portion of the obtained data may be included in afirst transmission, and the first transmission may be caused to be sentvia a first forward link to the vehicle 102 x. At block 288, a secondportion of the obtained data may be included in the second transmission,and the second transmission may be caused to be sent via a secondforward link to the vehicle 102 x. The first forward link and the secondforward link may each be supported by a different communication link ona different frequency band, and thus the first transmission and thesecond transmission may each be formatted using a different protocol.For example, a first portion of the obtained data may be caused to besent to the vehicle 102 x over the satellite forward link 108 b, and asecond portion of the obtained data may be caused to be sent to thevehicle 102 x over the ATG forward link 108 a. In an embodiment, thebandwidth or speed of the first forward link may be two times greaterthan that of the second forward link, three times greater, four timesgreater, five times greater, six times greater, seven times greater, orgreater by a factor larger than seven.

In some embodiments of the method 280, at least one of the contents ofthe first portion of the obtained data or the contents of the secondportion of the obtained data may be selected. In an embodiment, thecontents of the first or the second portion may be selected based on acontent type. For example, if the obtained content is a web page to bedisplayed at a screen of the target device 118, for an optimal userexperience, a user desires to see some progress of the loading of theweb page. Accordingly, critical elements of the web page (e.g., CSS,HTML, Java script, and other structural elements) may be selected to bedelivered to the vehicle 102 x by a faster forward link (e.g., the ATGforward link 108 a) so that these critical elements may be received assoon as possible at the device 118 to begin establishing the web pageframework, and to demonstrate to the user that some progress isoccurring. On the other hand, larger-sized elements of the web page(e.g., image, video, flash, etc.) may arrive at the user device afterthe critical elements, and may be inserted into the already-establishedwebpage framework. These larger elements, although not as time-criticalto the user experience, nonetheless require high bandwidth due to theirsize and density and, as such, may be selected to be delivered to thevehicle 102 x by a high-bandwidth forward link (e.g., the satelliteforward link 108 b).

Generally, the more time sensitive portions (e.g., portions that requirea low round trip delay time) of an obtained content may be selected tobe delivered over a faster forward link (as compared to other availableforward links 108), the higher density or larger-sized portions of theobtained content may be selected to be delivered over a higher capacityforward link (as compared to other available forward links 108), theportions of the obtained content that require a greater degree ofaccuracy may be selected to be delivered over a more robust forward link(as compared to other available forward links 108), etc. In somesituations, a particular content type may be exclusively assigned to oneparticular type of forward link for delivery, and optionally may beassigned to a back-up type of forward link if the primary forward linkis unavailable. In some situations, a particular content type may beassigned to multiple types of forward links, optionally with a priorityorder of selection, e.g., the highest priority, available forward linkis selected for delivery of the certain content type.

In still another example, within a given forward link, certain types ofdata may be given priority over other types of data. For instance, in asatellite forward link, overflow data from an ATG forward link may begiven higher priority than data that has been originally mapped to thesatellite forward link, as the overflow ATG traffic may generally bemore time sensitive than the satellite traffic.

In some embodiments of the method 280, a particular forward link may beselected for a particular type of content data further based on othercriteria, such a dynamic characteristic or status of one or more forwardlinks, or on a characteristic of the obtained content as a whole. Forexample, when the obtained content is a streaming video, streaming mediacoded picture frames (e.g., I-frames) may be assigned or selected to bedelivered over the ATG forward link 108 a, while the correspondingstreaming media predictive frames (e.g., P-frames, B-frames) may beassigned or selected to be delivered over a K_(a) satellite frequencyband. However, the bandwidth allocated for any particular stream withinthe K_(a) band may be capped at a certain level. If the streaming mediacontent reaches the cap within the K_(a) band, subsequent predictiveframes of the stream may be delivered via another forward link, e.g.,the L satellite frequency band. In another example, a particular type ofcontent data may be assigned or selected to be delivered over an ATGforward link 108 a, and when the ATG forward link is at a pre-definedcapacity, overflow of the particular type of content data may beassigned or selected to be delivered over the satellite forward link 108b. In another example, any data stream greater than a certain size maybe automatically mapped to be distributively delivered over allavailable satellite forward links.

In an embodiment, the selection of a particular forward link may bebased, at least in part, based on feedback data or information receivedfrom the vehicle 102 x. Feedback information or data may be indicativeof a current quality, capacity, or availability of one or more forwardlinks, e.g., as previously described with respect to FIGS. 2-5. The datacenter 105 or the hybrid communications distributor 104 may receivefeedback data or information via a reverse link, and may select asubsequent forward link for transmission of a particular portion ofobtained content at least partially based on the received feedbackinformation or data, in an embodiment.

Thus, as illustrated by the examples, portions of the content data maybe mapped to various forward links based on many levels of granularityand differentiation criteria. For example, as previously indicated,mapping of different portions of content data to different forward linksmay be based on content type. Mapping may additionally or alternativelybe based on a type of application to which the obtained content is to bedelivered, and/or based on a stream size in which the obtained contentis included. Still additionally or alternatively, mapping of portions ofthe obtained content to various forward links may be based on, forexample, socket types or availability of sockets, a level of servicepaid for by or otherwise assigned to a user of the recipient device, aquality and/or an availability of various forward links, dynamicresource allocation algorithms, etc. Further, mapping of portions of theobtained content to various forward links may be additionally oralternatively performed at different levels, e.g., at an applicationlevel, a packet level, a stream level, a level based on geographicallocation, a level based on a characteristic of an account of the user,or a level of service acquired by the user.

In an embodiment, the mapping of certain content types to certainforward links are determined a priori and the mappings are stored in afile or other data storage entity that is accessible to the data center105 or to the hybrid communications distributor 104. In someembodiments, a particular forward link may be selected for a particulartype of data content based on the a priori mapping. The mappings ofcontent portions and forward links may be configurable, in anembodiment.

With further regard to the method 280, similar to the each of themethods 200, 220, 240 and 260, any of the forward transmissions over anyof the forward links 108 may include multiplexed contents or portions ofcontents that are to be delivered to the device 118 and/or to otherdevices being transported on the vehicles 102. Similarly, each of themethods 200, 220, 240, 260 and 280 may multicast any forwardtransmission over any forward link 108, as desired.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example method 300 for distributively deliveringcontent to devices being transported by vehicles. In an embodiment, themethod 300 is performed at least in part by the hybrid communicationssystem 100 of FIG. 1, although some or all of the method 300 may beperformed by a communications system other than the system 100. In anembodiment, at least a portion of the method 300 is performed by theon-board node 120 at the vehicle 102 x, by the hybrid communicationscollector 122 included in the on-board node 120, by a recipient device118, or by an application executing on the recipient device 118 such asthe VTA. In an embodiment, the method 300 may operate in conjunctionwith at least a part of one or more of the methods described in FIGS.2-5 and 7, and/or with the data tunnel 600 of FIG. 6. For ease ofdiscussion, the method 300 is described below with simultaneousreference to FIGS. 1-7, however, this description is only one of manyembodiments and is understood to be non-limiting. Additionally, for easeof discussion only and not for limitation purposes, the method 300 isdescribed below in the context of an example scenario in which data isto be delivered to a device 118 that is on-board a particular vehicle102 x of a plurality of vehicles 102.

At block 302, a first transmission including a first portion of contentthat is to be received, as a whole by the on-board device 118, isreceived at the vehicle 102 x. For example, the on-board node 120, thehybrid communications collector 122, the device 118 or an application onthe device 118 (e.g., the VTA) receives the first portion of thecontent. In an embodiment, the content that is to be received, as awhole by the device 118, is to be presented, as a whole, at a userinterface of the device 118. For example, the content that is to bepresented as a whole at the user interface of the device 118 may be aweb page, streaming video, a response to a request from a user of thedevice 118, or any other type of content that is to be delivered to thedevice 118 such as previously discussed with respect to FIGS. 1-7. Thefirst portion of the content may be received onto the vehicle 102 x viaa first modem connected to a first forward link (e.g., one of theforward links 108) that is supported by a first wireless frequency band,and the first portion of the content may be received in conjunction withan indication of the device 118 to which the first portion of thecontent is to be delivered.

At block 305, a second transmission including a second portion ofcontent that is to be received, as a whole by the on-board device 118,is received at the vehicle 102 x. For example, the on-board node 120,the hybrid communications collector 122, the device 118 or anapplication on the device 118 (e.g., the VTA) receives the secondportion of the content. The second portion of the content may bereceived onto the vehicle 102 x via a second modem connected to a secondforward link (e.g., another forward link from the set of forward links108) that is supported by a second wireless frequency band differentthan the first wireless frequency band. The second portion of thecontent may be received in conjunction with an indication of the device118 to which the second portion of the content is to be delivered.

In an embodiment, the first forward link, the second forward link, thefirst portion of the content, and/or the second portion of the contentmay have been selected. For example, the first forward link, the secondforward link, the first portion of the content, and/or the secondportion of the content may have been selected by the data center 105 orby the hybrid communications distributor 104 based on the criteria forforward link and/or content portion selection as previously describedwith respect to FIG. 7, or based on other criteria.

In an embodiment, based on the indication of the device 118 included inthe first forward transmission, the hybrid communications collector 122may determine whether or not the device 118 to which the first portionof the content is to be delivered is currently on-board the vehicle 102x. If the device to which the first portion of the content is to bedelivered is determined to be not on-board the vehicle 102 x, no furtherprocessing on the first forward transmission may be performed at thevehicle 102 x. If the device to which the first portion of the contentis to be delivered is determined to be on-board the vehicle 102 x, e.g.,the device 118, the method 300 may include causing the content of thefirst received transmission to be sent to the recipient or target device118 via one or more communication networks contained within the vehicle102 x (block 308). For example, if the device 118 is a mobile computingdevice connected to a Wi-Fi network on-board the vehicle 102 x, thehybrid communications collector 122 may include the first portion of thecontent in an IEEE 802.11 compatible transmission, and may cause thetransmission to be delivered over the on-board Wi-Fi network to thedevice 118. Other examples of on-board data delivery other than Wi-Fi,though, are additionally or alternatively possible. Indeed, the method300 may use any means and/or techniques of delivering the receivedcontent to an on-board device, such as any of the means and/ortechniques described in the aforementioned co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/675,200.

With regard to the second forward transmission, in an embodiment, basedon the indication of the device 118 included in the second forwardtransmission, the hybrid communications collector 122 may determinewhether or not the device 118 to which the second portion of the contentis to be delivered is currently on-board the vehicle 102 x. If thedevice to which the second portion of the content is to be delivered isdetermined to be not on-board the vehicle 102 x, no further processingon the second forward transmission may be performed at the vehicle 102x. If the device to which the second portion of the content is to bedelivered is determined to be on-board the vehicle 102 x, e.g., thedevice 118, the method 300 may include causing the content of the secondreceived transmission to be sent to the recipient or target device 118via one or more communication networks contained within the vehicle 102x (block 310). For example, if the device 118 is a mobile computingdevice connected to a Wi-Fi network on-board the vehicle 102 x, thehybrid communications collector 122 may include the second portion ofthe content in an IEEE 802.11 compatible transmission, and may cause thetransmission to be delivered over the on-board Wi-Fi network to thedevice 118. Other examples of on-board data delivery other than Wi-Fi,though, are additionally or alternatively possible. Indeed, the method300 may use any means and/or techniques of delivering the receivedcontent to an on-board device, such as any of the means and/ortechniques described in the aforementioned co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/675,200.

In an embodiment, the first external forward link 108 and the forwardlink of the on-board communication network to which the device 118 isconnected (e.g., the on-board Wi-Fi network or other suitable network)support a first data communication tunnel established by the data center105 (or by the hybrid communications distributor 104 included in thedata center 105). For example, the first forward link and the forwardlink of the on-board Wi-Fi network to the device 118 support a firstdata tunnel forward link similar to the data tunnel forward link 610 ofFIG. 6, and the first portion of the content is delivered to the device118 using the first data tunnel forward link.

In an embodiment, the second external forward link 108 and the on-boardforward link to which the device 118 is connected (e.g., the on-boardWi-Fi network or other suitable network) support a second datacommunication tunnel established by the data center 105 (or by thehybrid communications distributor 104 included in the data center 105)that is distinct and separate from the first data communication tunnel.For example, the second external forward link 108 and the secondon-board forward link to the device 118 support a second data tunnelforward link 610, and the second portion of the content is delivered tothe device 118 using the second data tunnel forward link. In thisembodiment, the device 118 or an application at the device 118 (e.g.,the VTA) may assemble the first portion and the second portion to formthe content as a whole at the device 118, in some cases, over time. Forexample, the device 118 or the application at the device 118 may firstreceive the first portion of the content, and begin presenting the firstportion of the content at a user interface of the device. When thesecond portion of the content is received, the device 118 or theapplication at the device 118 may add the second portion of the contentto the presented first portion so that the content as a whole ispresented at the user interface of the device.

In an embodiment, rather than the device 118 (or an application thereon)serving as the on-board endpoints of the two established data tunnels tothe data center 105, the on-board device 120 or the hybridcommunications collector 122 of the on-board device 120 serves as theon-board endpoints of two established data tunnels to the data center105 (where one of the two established data tunnels delivers the firstportion of the content to be delivered to the device 118, and the otherone of the two established data tunnels delivers the second portion ofthe content). In this embodiment, rather than the device 118 (or anapplication thereon) collecting and assembling the content as a whole,the on-board device 120 or the hybrid communications collector 122collects and assembles the content as a whole, and causes the assembledcontent to be delivered to the device 118, e.g., via an on-boardcommunication network.

In an embodiment, the on-board node 120, the hybrid communicationscollector 122, the device 118, or an application on the device 118 maycause feedback information or data to be sent, via a reverse link 110,from the vehicle 102 x to the data center 105. Feedback information ordata may correspond to the received first portion of the content and/orto the received second portion of the content, for example. In anembodiment, the feedback information or data may be indicative of acurrent quality, capacity, or availability of one or more forward linksand/or of one or more reverse links, e.g., as previously described withrespect to FIGS. 2-7.

Thus, as discussed above, a hybrid communications system, such as theexample hybrid communications system 100, may allow transmission of dataand information to devices on-board a vehicle using a forward link and areverse link, each of which may be supported by a different frequencyband and each of which may utilize a different communication protocol.The forward link may differ in frequency band, hardware configuration,protocol, spectrum, etc., as compared with the reverse linkcorresponding to the reverse direction. In an embodiment, the bandwidthand/or the speed of the forward link may be greater than (and in somecases, significantly greater than) the bandwidth and/or the speed of thereverse link to allow for efficient use of spectrum and modem resources,and for decreased data delivery times. In an embodiment, forwardtransmissions may be multiplexed and/or multicast. Selection of aforward link for a subsequent transmission may be based on feedbackinformation received via the reverse link, and in some cases, may alsobe based on a type of the content that is to be delivered. In anembodiment, a hybrid communications system, such as the example hybridcommunications system 100, may utilize multiple different forward linksto deliver content as a whole between a device that is on-board avehicle and a data center. Selection of portions of contents and/or ofthe multiple forward links may be based on a content type and optionallyother criteria.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example on-board system 500 in a vehicle 502 thatmay receive information or data onto the vehicle 502 (e.g., informationor data provided by the data center, the hybrid communicationsdistributor 104, or other suitable information distributor), and thatmay cause feedback information to be delivered from the vehicle 502,e.g., to the data center 105 or the hybrid communications distributor104. Further, the on-board system 500 may cause data to be delivered toand/or received from one or more devices 504 being transported by thevehicle 502. In an embodiment, the vehicle 502 is the vehicle 102 x, andthe one or more devices 504 is one of the devices 118.

The example on-board system 500 includes an on-board node 506, such asan Auxiliary Computer Power Unit (ACPU), that may be a computing devicecommunicatively connected to one or more external communication linksvia one or more antennas 508 and one or more modems or transceivers 510.In an embodiment, the on-board node 506 may be the on-board node 120,and may include an instance of the hybrid communications collector 122,which is represented in FIG. 9 by the block 507.

Each of the one or more antennas 508 may receive and transmit signalsvia a different respective frequency band allocated for wirelesscommunications, e.g., the K_(a) band, the L band, the K_(u) band, theWiMAX band, the Wi-Fi band, a terrestrial cellular band, or any othersuitable wireless communication frequency band. Each of the antennas 508may be communicatively connected to an associated modem or transceiver510 that is fixedly connected to the vehicle 502 and is configured toencode and decode information and data corresponding to signals at therespective antenna 508, in an implementation. The one or more modems ortransceivers 510 may include a respective modem or transceiver that iscompatible with TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), GSM (Global Systemfor Mobile Communications), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), LTE(Long Term Evolution) communications, WiMAX, and/or any otherterrestrial mobile communications technology. In some embodiments, theone or more modems 510 may include a respective modem or transceiverthat is compatible with EVDO (Evolution Data Optimized) or Wi-Ficommunications technologies. It is clear, however, that the on-boardsystem 500 may include any number of antennas 508 and any differentnumber of associated modems or transceivers 510 to support any desirednumber of different wireless communication technologies.

In addition, when the vehicle 502 is an aircraft, a cockpit electronicsnode 512 may be communicatively coupled to the one or more modems 510.The cockpit electronics node 510 may be a LRU configured to collectelectronic information from various instruments in the cockpit of theaircraft, e.g., during flight. In some cases, the cockpit electronicsnode 510 may provide collected flight information such as altitude,airspeed, aircraft position, or other flight state information to thehybrid communications obtainer 507, the on-board node 506, or directlyto the vehicle data distribution network 106, e.g., via a designatedreturn link.

At least some of the devices 504 may be mobile computing devices such assmartphones, tablet computers, laptop computers, personal digitalassistants, e-readers, etc. that are capable of establishing a wirelesscommunicative connection with the hybrid communications obtainer 507 viaone or more wireless access points 514, e.g., via a wireless networkinterface. Some of the devices 504 may be wired computing devices thatare communicatively connected to the on-board node 506 via a wirednetwork 516.

In some implementations, one or more of the devices 504 may be anon-board data storage entity 518 that may store various types of datawhich may be distributed to and/or received from other devices 504,e.g., entertainment content, web pages, account information, usage data,applications that may be installed, information identifying the devices504, payment information (e.g., encrypted financial accountinformation), digital rights management (DRM) keys, and/or any otherdata that is desired to be stored, at least temporarily, on-board thevehicle 502.

In an embodiment, each of devices 504 may include an instance of avehicle travel application (VTA) installed thereon and particularlyconfigured to support services while the device 504 is being transportedby the vehicle 504, e.g., when the vehicle 504 is traveling en routebetween ports. For example, the vehicle travel application may beconfigured to serve as the on-board end of a data tunnel that isestablished with the data center 105 or with the hybrid communicationsdistributor 104 at the data center. In an embodiment, the vehicle travelapplication may communicate with other applications installed on aparticular device 504 (e.g., native terrestrial applications) so thatthe other applications may operate as desired (e.g., in a native manner)while the device 504 is being transported by the vehicle 502.

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of an example computing device 550that may be utilized in the hybrid communications system 100. Forexample, one or more computing devices 550 may be particularlyconfigured to be utilized as at least a portion of the data center 105,the vehicle data delivery network 106, the on-board node 120, or thedevice 118. Additionally, other devices illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 5such as the cockpit electronics node 512 may include an embodiment ofthe computing device 550.

The computing device 550 may include, for example, one more centralprocessing units (CPUs) or processors 552, and one or more busses orhubs 553 that connect the processor(s) 552 to other elements of thecomputing device 550, such as a volatile memory 554, a non-volatilememory 555, a display controller 556, and an I/O controller 557. Thevolatile memory 554 and the non-volatile memory 555 may each include oneor more non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage media such asrandom access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), FLASH memory, abiological memory, a hard disk drive, a digital versatile disk (DVD)disk drive, etc.

In an embodiment, the memory 554 and/or the memory 555 may storeinstructions 558 that are executable by the processor 552. For example,in a computing device particularly configured to be included in the datacenter 105, the instructions 558 may be the instructions comprising thehybrid communications distributor 104. In another example, in acomputing device 550 particularly configured to be the on-board node120, the instructions 558 may be the instructions comprising the hybridcommunications collector 122. In yet another example, in a computingdevice 550 particularly configured to be a device 118, the instructions558 may be the Vehicle Travel Application (VTA). Indeed, each of themodules, applications and engines described herein can correspond to adifferent set of machine readable instructions for performing one ormore functions described above. These modules need not be implemented asseparate software programs, procedures or modules, and thus varioussubsets of these modules can be combined or otherwise re-arranged invarious embodiments. In some embodiments, at least one of the memories554, 555 stores a subset of the modules and data structures identifiedherein. In other embodiments, at least one of the memories 554, 555stores additional modules and data structures not described herein.

In an embodiment, the display controller 556 may communicate with theprocessor (s) 552 to cause information to be presented on a connecteddisplay device 559. In an embodiment, the I/O controller 557 maycommunicate with the processor(s) 552 to transfer information andcommands to/from the user interface 560, which may include a mouse, akeyboard or key pad, a touch pad, click wheel, lights, a speaker, amicrophone, etc. In an embodiment, at least portions of the displaydevice 559 and of the user interface 560 are combined in a single,integral device, e.g., a touch screen. Additionally, data or informationmay be transferred to and from the computing device 550 via a networkinterface 570. In some embodiments, the computing device 550 may includemore than one network interface 570, such as a wireless interface and awired interface.

The illustrated computing device 550 is only one example of a computingdevice suitable to be particularly configured for use in the hybridcommunications system 100. Other embodiments of the computing device 550may be also be for use in the hybrid communications system 100, even ifthe other embodiments have more or fewer components than shown in FIG.10, have one or more combined components, or have a differentconfiguration or arrangement of the components. Moreover, the variouscomponents shown in FIG. 10 can be implemented in hardware, a processorexecuting software instructions, or a combination of both hardware and aprocessor executing software instructions, including one or more signalprocessing and/or application specific integrated circuits.

Of course, the applications and benefits of the systems, methods andtechniques described herein are not limited to only the above examples.Many other applications and benefits are possible by using the systems,methods and techniques described herein.

Furthermore, when implemented, any of the methods and techniquesdescribed herein or portions thereof may be performed by executingsoftware stored in one or more non-transitory, tangible, computerreadable storage media or memories such as magnetic disks, laser disks,optical discs, semiconductor memories, biological memories, other memorydevices, or other storage media, in a RAM or ROM of a computer orprocessor, etc.

Moreover, although the foregoing text sets forth a detailed descriptionof numerous different embodiments, it should be understood that thescope of the patent is defined by the words of the claims set forth atthe end of this patent. The detailed description is to be construed asexemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment becausedescribing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if notimpossible. Numerous alternative embodiments could be implemented, usingeither current technology or technology developed after the filing dateof this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims.By way of example, and not limitation, the disclosure hereincontemplates at least the following aspects:

1. A method of distributively delivering content to devices beingtransported by vehicles, comprising: obtaining, at an hybridcommunications distributor disposed in a terrestrial location, contentthat is to be delivered to a device, the device being a mobile computingdevice that is temporarily being transported by a vehicle that isin-flight; selecting, at a processor of the hybrid communicationsdistributor, at least one of a first forward link included in a firstwireless communication link supported by a first frequency band or asecond forward link included in a second wireless communication linksupported by a second frequency band; causing, by the hybridcommunications distributor, a first transmission to be sent to thein-flight vehicle using the first forward link, the first transmissionincluding a first portion of the content; and causing, by the hybridcommunications distributor, a second transmission to be sent to thein-flight vehicle using the second forward link, the second transmissionincluding a second portion of the content.

2. The method of the preceding aspect, wherein selecting the at leastone of the first forward link or the second forward link comprisesselecting the at least one of the first forward link or the secondforward link based on a type of data that is included in one of thefirst portion of the content or the second portion of the content andthat is excluded from the other one of the first portion of the contentor the second portion of the content.

3. The method of any one of the preceding aspects, wherein selecting theat least one of the first forward link or the second forward linkcomprises selecting the at least one of the first forward link or thesecond forward link based on a size of a data stream in which thecontent is included.

4. The method of any one of the preceding aspects, wherein selecting theat least one of the first forward link or the second forward linkcomprises selecting the at least one of the first forward link or thesecond forward link based on at least one of: a current capacity of thefirst wireless communication link; a current capacity of the secondwireless communication link; a current availability of the firstwireless communication link; a current availability of the secondwireless communication link; a transmission quality of the firstwireless communication link; or a transmission quality of the secondwireless communication link.

5. The method of any one of the preceding aspects, wherein selecting theat least one of the first forward link or the second forward linkcomprises selecting the at least one of the first forward link or thesecond forward link based on at least one of a time requirement fordelivery of the first portion or a time requirement for delivery of thesecond portion.

6. The method of any one of the preceding aspects, further comprisingselecting at least one of the first portion of the content or the secondportion of the content based on at least one of: a type of data that isto be included in one of the first portion of the content or the secondportion of the content and that is to be excluded from the other one ofthe first portion of the content or the second portion of the content; atime requirement for delivery of the type of data; an applicationcorresponding to the content; a user of the device; or a socket used bythe first communication link or by the second communication link.

7. The method of any one of the preceding aspects, wherein the contentto be delivered to the device is first content, and wherein the methodfurther comprises: multiplexing the first portion of the first contentwith other content to be delivered to the device or to another devicethat is temporarily being transported by the in-flight vehicle; andincluding, in the first transmission sent to the in-flight vehicle, themultiplexed contents.

8. The method of any one of the preceding aspects, wherein multiplexingthe first portion of the content with the other content comprisesmultiplexing the first portion of the content and the other content atat least one of: an application level, a packet level, a stream level, alevel based in geographical location, or a level corresponding to a userof the device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of: (i) causing the firsttransmission to be sent to the in-flight vehicle using the first forwardlink included in the first communication link supported by the firstfrequency band comprises causing the first transmission to be sent tothe in-flight vehicle using a forward link that is at least one of: an Lband communication link, a Ku band communication link, a Kacommunication link, a Wi-Fi communication link, a WiMAX communicationlink, a communication link supported by one or more satellites, or acommunication link supporting a broadband protocol; or (ii) causing thesecond transmission to be sent to the in-flight vehicle using the secondforward link included in the second communication link supported by thesecond frequency band comprises causing the second transmission to besent to the in-flight vehicle using a forward link of an air-to-ground(ATG) communication link that is configured to deliver data directlybetween the in-flight vehicle an terrestrial ground stations while thein-flight vehicle is in-flight.

10. The method of any one of the preceding aspects, wherein obtainingthe content that is to be delivered to the device comprises obtainingcontent that includes at least one of: information that is to bepresented, as a whole, on a user interface of the device; a web page; aresponse to a request generated at the device; or streaming data.

11. A system for distributively delivering content to devices that arebeing transported by vehicles, the system configured to perform none orany one of the preceding aspects, and the system comprising: a hybridcommunications distributor that is communicatively connected to avehicle via a plurality of forward links while the vehicle is in-flight,where each forward link of the plurality of forward links uses adifferent respective wireless communication protocol. The hybridcommunications distributor may include one or more processors and one ormore non-transitory, tangible computer-readable storage media storingcomputer-executable instructions. The computer-executable instructions,when executed by the one or more processors, may cause the hybridcommunications distributor to obtain content that is to be presented, asa whole, at a user interface of a device being transported by thein-flight vehicle. Additionally, the computer-executable instructions,when executed by the one or more processors, may cause the hybridcommunications distributor to cause a first transmission to be sent tothe in-flight vehicle using a first forward link of the plurality offorward links, the first forward link included in a first communicationlink, and the first transmission including a first portion of thecontent that is to be presented, as a whole, at the user interface ofthe device. Further, the computer-executable instructions, when executedby the one or more processors, may cause the hybrid communicationsdistributor to cause a second transmission to be sent to the in-flightvehicle using a second forward link of the plurality of forward links,the second forward link included in a second communication link, and thesecond transmission including a second portion of the content that is tobe presented, as a whole, at the user interface of the device.

12. The system of any one of the preceding aspects, wherein thecomputer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the hybrid communications distributor further toselect at least one of the first forward link or the second forward linkbased on a type of data that is included in one of the first portion ofthe content or the second portion of the content, and that is excludedfrom the other one of the first portion of the content or the secondportion of the content.

13. The system of any one of the preceding aspects, wherein one or moreassociations between particular types of data and particular forwardlinks are predetermined, and wherein the selection of the at least oneof the first forward link or the second forward link is based on the oneor more associations.

14. The system of any one of the preceding aspects, wherein theselection of the at least one of the first forward link or the secondforward link is further based on: a size of a data stream in which thecontent is included; at least one of a current capacity, a currentavailability, or a current transmission quality of the firstcommunication link; at least one of a current capacity, a currentavailability, or a current transmission quality of the secondcommunication link; or feedback information received by the hybridcommunications distributor, the feedback information corresponding to aprevious forward transmission.

15. The system of any one of the preceding aspects, wherein thecomputer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the hybrid communications distributor further tomultiplex, at at least one of an application level, a packet level, astream level, or a user level, the first portion of the content to bedelivered to the device with other content to be delivered to the deviceor to another device being transported by the in-flight vehicle; andinclude the multiplexed contents in the first transmission that iscaused to be sent to the in-flight vehicle using the first forward link.

16. The system of any one of the preceding aspects, wherein each forwardlink included in the plurality of forward links is supported by adifferent frequency band selected from: an L frequency band, a Kufrequency band; a Ka frequency band; a first other frequency bandallocated to support satellite communications, a second other frequencyband allocated to support another wireless broadband communicationprotocol; or a frequency band allocated for direct wirelesscommunications between in-flight vehicles and ground stations.

17. The system of any one of the preceding aspects, wherein thecomputer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the hybrid communications distributor further to causea third transmission to be sent to the in-flight vehicle using a thirdforward link of the plurality of forward links, the third forward linkincluded in a third communication link, and the third transmissionincluding a third portion of the content that is to be presented at theuser interface of the device.

18. A method of receiving distributed content at devices beingtransported by vehicles, the method including none or any one of thepreceding aspects, and the method comprising: receiving, at a vehiclevia a first forward link of a plurality of forward links configured towirelessly deliver data to the vehicle, a first transmission including afirst portion of information that is to be displayed, as a whole, at auser interface of a device, the device being a mobile computing devicethat is temporarily being transported by a vehicle, and the firstforward link included in a first wireless communication link supportedby a first frequency band; causing, by a processor of a hybridcommunications collector fixedly connected to the vehicle, the firstportion of the information that is to be displayed, as a whole, at theuser interface of the device to be sent to the device using a wirelessnetwork contained within the vehicle; receiving, at the vehicle via asecond forward link of the plurality of forward links, a subsequenttransmission including a second portion of the information that is todisplayed at a user interface of the device; and causing, by theprocessor of the hybrid communications collector, the second portion ofthe information that is to be displayed, as a whole, at the userinterface of the device to be sent to the device using the wirelessnetwork contained within the vehicle. The first portion of theinformation to be displayed at the user interface of the device may be afirst selected portion, the second portion of the information to bedisplayed at the user interface of the device may be a second selectedportion, the first forward link may be a first selected forward link,and/or the second forward link may be a second selected forward link.

19. The method of any one of the preceding aspects, wherein receivingthe first portion of the information that is to be displayed, as awhole, at the user interface of the device comprises receiving a firstportion of at least one of: a web page, a response to a request receivedat the user interface of the device, or streaming data.

20. The method of any one of the preceding aspects, further comprisingcausing, by the hybrid communications collector, feedback informationcorresponding to at least one of the first transmission or the secondtransmission to be sent from the vehicle using a reverse link.

Thus, many modifications and variations may be made in the techniques,methods, and structures described and illustrated herein withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present claims. Accordingly,it should be understood that the methods and apparatus described hereinare illustrative only and are not limiting upon the scope of the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of distributively delivering content todevices being transported by vehicles, comprising: selecting, at aprocessor of a hybrid communications distributor disposed in aterrestrial location, a first portion of content that is to be deliveredto a device, the device being a mobile computing device that istemporarily being transported by a vehicle that is in-flight, and theselection based on a type of data included in the first portion;selecting, at the processor of the hybrid communications distributor andbased on the type of data included in the first portion of the content,at least one of a first forward link supported by a first frequency bandor a second forward link supported by a second frequency band; causing afirst transmission to be sent to the in-flight vehicle using the firstforward link, the first transmission including the first portion of thecontent; and causing a second transmission to be sent to the in-flightvehicle using the second forward link, the second transmission includinga second portion of the content.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinselecting the at least one of the first forward link or the secondforward link comprises selecting the at least one of the first forwardlink or the second forward link based on a type of data that is includedin one of the first portion of the content or the second portion of thecontent and that is excluded from the other one of the first portion ofthe content or the second portion of the content.
 3. The method of claim1, wherein selecting the at least one of the first forward link or thesecond forward link comprises selecting the at least one of the firstforward link or the second forward link based on a size of a data streamin which the content is included.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereinselecting the at least one of the first forward link or the secondforward link comprises selecting the at least one of the first forwardlink or the second forward link based on at least one of: a currentcapacity of the first forward link; a current capacity of the secondforward link; a current availability of the first forward link; acurrent availability of the second forward link; a transmission qualityof the first forward link; or a transmission quality of the secondforward link.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the at leastone of the first forward link or the second forward link comprisesselecting the at least one of the first forward link or the secondforward link based on at least one of a time requirement for delivery ofthe first portion or a time requirement for delivery of the secondportion.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting at leastone of the first portion of the content or the second portion of thecontent based on at least one of: a type of data that is to be includedin one of the first portion of the content or the second portion of thecontent and that is to be excluded from the other one of the firstportion of the content or the second portion of the content; a timerequirement for delivery of the type of data; an applicationcorresponding to the content; a user of the device; or a socket used bythe first communication link or by the second communication link.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the content to be delivered to the device isfirst content, and wherein the method further comprises: multiplexingthe first portion of the first content with other content to bedelivered to the device or to another device that is temporarily beingtransported by the in-flight vehicle; and including, in the firsttransmission sent to the in-flight vehicle, the multiplexed contents. 8.The method of claim 7, wherein multiplexing the first portion of thecontent with the other content comprises multiplexing the first portionof the content and the other content at at least one of: an applicationlevel, a packet level, a stream level, a level based in geographicallocation, or a level corresponding to a user of the device.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, wherein at least one of: causing the firsttransmission to be sent to the in-flight vehicle using the first forwardlink comprises causing the first transmission to be sent to thein-flight vehicle using a forward link included in at least one of: an Lband communication link, a K_(u) band communication link, a K_(a)communication link, a Wi-Fi communication link, a WiMAX communicationlink, a communication link supported by one or more satellites, or acommunication link supporting a broadband protocol; or causing thesecond transmission to be sent to the in-flight vehicle using the secondforward link comprises causing the second transmission to be sent to thein-flight vehicle using a forward link of an air-to-ground (ATG)communication link that is configured to deliver data directly betweenthe in-flight vehicle and terrestrial ground stations while thein-flight vehicle is in-flight.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein thecontent that is to be delivered to the device comprises content thatincludes at least one of: information that is to be presented, as awhole, on a user interface of the device; a web page; a response to arequest generated at the device; or streaming data.
 11. A system fordistributively delivering content to devices that are being transportedby vehicles, comprising: a hybrid communications distributor that iscommunicatively connected to a vehicle via a plurality of communicationlinks while the vehicle is in-flight, wherein each communication link ofthe plurality of communication links uses a different respectivewireless communication protocol, the hybrid communications distributorincluding: one or more processors; and one or more non-transitory,tangible computer-readable storage media storing computer-executableinstructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causethe hybrid communications distributor to: select a first portion ofcontent that is to be presented, as a whole, at a user interface of adevice being transported by the in-flight vehicle, the selection of thefirst portion based on a type of data included in the first portion;select a first communication link based on the type of data included inthe first portion of the content; cause a first transmission to be sentto the in-flight vehicle using the first communication link, the firsttransmission including the first portion of the content that is to bepresented, as a whole, at the user interface of the device; and cause asecond transmission to be sent to the in-flight vehicle using a secondcommunication link, the second transmission including a second portionof the content that is to be presented, as a whole, at the userinterface of the device.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein thecomputer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the hybrid communications distributor further toselect at least one of the first communication link or the secondcommunication link based on a type of data that is included in one ofthe first portion of the content or the second portion of the content,and that is excluded from the other one of the first portion of thecontent or the second portion of the content.
 13. The system of claim12, wherein one or more associations between particular types of dataand particular communication links are predetermined, and wherein theselection of the at least one of the first communication link or thesecond communication link is based on the one or more associations. 14.The system of claim 13, wherein the selection of the at least one of thefirst communication link or the second communication link is furtherbased on: a size of a data stream in which the content is included; atleast one of a current capacity, a current availability, or a currenttransmission quality of the first communication link; at least one of acurrent capacity, a current availability, or a current transmissionquality of the second communication link; or feedback informationreceived by the hybrid communications distributor, the feedbackinformation corresponding to a previous forward transmission.
 15. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions, whenexecuted by the one or more processors, cause the hybrid communicationsdistributor further to: multiplex, at at least one of an applicationlevel, a packet level, a stream level, or a user level, the firstportion of the content to be delivered to the device with other contentto be delivered to the device or to another device being transported bythe in-flight vehicle; and include the multiplexed contents in the firsttransmission that is caused to be sent to the in-flight vehicle usingthe first communication link.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein eachcommunication link included in the plurality of communication links issupported by a different frequency band selected from: an L frequencyband, a K_(u) frequency band; a K_(a) frequency band; a first otherfrequency band allocated to support satellite communications, a secondother frequency band allocated to support another wireless broadbandcommunication protocol; or a frequency band allocated for directwireless communications between in-flight vehicles and ground stations.17. A system for distributively delivering content to devices that arebeing transported by vehicles, comprising: a hybrid communicationsdistributor comprising: a first interface communicatively connecting thehybrid communications distributor to a ground-based communicationnetwork; a second interface communicatively connecting, via a pluralityof forward links, the hybrid communications distributor to a vehiclethat is in-flight, wherein each forward link of the plurality of forwardlinks utilizes a different respective wireless communication protocol;and a selector configured to: (i) select, from a content that isreceived via the first interface and that is to be presented, as awhole, at a user interface of a device being transported by thein-flight vehicle, a first portion of the content, the selection of thefirst portion of the content based on a type of data included in thefirst portion; and (ii) select a first forward link of the plurality offorward links based on the type of data included in the first portion ofthe content, wherein one of the first portion of the content or a secondportion of the content is delivered to the in-flight vehicle via thesecond interface using the selected first forward link, and the otherone of the first portion of the content or the second portion of thecontent is delivered to the in-flight vehicle via the second interfaceusing another forward link of the plurality of forward links.
 18. Thesystem of claim 17, wherein the content that is received via the firstinterface that is to be presented, as a whole, at the user interface ofthe device being transported by the in-flight vehicle comprises at leastone of: a webpage, a response to request received at the user interfaceof the device, or streaming data.
 19. The system of claim 17, whereinthe selector comprises computer-executable instructions stored on one ormore non-transitory, tangible computer-readable storage media of thehybrid communications distributor.
 20. The system of claim 17, whereinthe selector is further configured to select a third forward link of theplurality of forward links, and wherein a third portion of the contentis delivered to the in-flight vehicle using the third forward link.